<< you might be surprised to know that
BOYS TOWN  is a real place, not a micky rooney movie.>>
 
I would not be surprised to learn that (in fact, I knew it before your very
defensive post). My point was not that Boys Town was an evil institution, but
rather, the use of an absurdly idealized version of it from 1938 created by
people who ought to have known better, by sloganeering and opportunistic
politicians of 1994.
Furthermore, the Boys Town of 1994 is (and has been, for a long time)
unrecognizable as it was portrayed in that film. It is a short, term chain of
"villages" for troublesome youths, not a long-term warehouse for working
mothers as was suggested by Gingrich. In fact, the current director of Boys
Town, a priest (whose name I do not recall) was interviewed this week on tv
and said that while he felt that Father Flanagan's approach might have been
appropriate in the 1930's, it was wholly inappropriate and absurd to suggest
that it could  cope with the geometrically more immense and serious problems
that we face today.
I was certainly not trying to hide my political bias in my post, but to
interpret it as an attack on Boys Town today is symptomatic of the reasons
why our political dialogue has become so viciously adversarial.
 
Gene Stavis, School of Visual Arts - NYC