Peter Johnston
Peter Johnston
Recent Stories
Johnston: Holding off nature
As an undergraduate, I remember being rather proud that Yale did not have snow days. Ensconced with suitemates, dutifully, I could gripe that the annual dusting failed to shutter class.
Johnston: Continuing to fight
“Holding, as they do, that slavery is morally right, and socially elevating, they cannot cease to demand a full national recognition of it, as a legal right, and a social blessing. Nor can we justifiably withhold this, on any ground save our conviction that slavery is wrong. If slavery is right, all words, acts, laws and constitutions against it, are themselves wrong, and should be silenced, and swept away.” There were nearly 4 million slaves in America when Abraham Lincoln addressed these words to the Cooper Union in 1860.
Newly beyond the gates of Yale …
Four former columnists who graduated in May write about their lives these days, and share perspectives they have gained since leaving Yale.
Johnston: The logical extension of the first step
To allow optional gender-neutral housing to all upperclassmen is to adopt a logic whose final outcome will be mandatory gender-integrated housing for freshmen.
Johnston: Sex-selective abortion is sexist
The Oklahoma House voted yesterday to ban sex-selective abortion, opening the next front in the legal war over abortion.
Johnston: Athletics are a form of education
The critic of varsity sports alleges that sports detract from the educational project of the University.
Johnston: Market as important as ever
The vulgar right prophesies socialism ascendant, but its hyperventilated ranting is the scrap of a wholly different national transformation. The triumph of the market is at hand, and the era of limited government is over.
Johnston: Against difficult odds
In perusing President Barack Obama’s speeches before yesterday, one might have expected him to use the occasion of his inaugural address for rhetorical flair, as in his speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention: “There is not a liberal America and a conservative America, there is the United States of America.”
Johnston: Traveling with Petrarch’s music
The crass materialization of Christmas has long been a hobbyhorse of the critics of American culture. Their concern is valid, as far as it goes.
Johnston: The YPMB, vulgar? Hardly
The only effective limitation on speech is cultural expectation. That is to say, decency is a matter of prejudice rather than law. But American society is increasingly devoid of prejudice. The result is that Thomas Duffy, the director of the Yale Bands who last week suspended the Yale Precision Marching Band for displaying offensive language on a prop when they “marched on down the field” at The Game, should not be so worried about his professional reputation. While the band may be more likely to traffic in vulgarities in a liberated society, it is less likely that the vulgarities will cause offense.