In an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Pasadena City College writing instructor Kay Haugaard notes that lately her students have had trouble expressing moral reservations about human sacrifice. The subject came up when she had her class read Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," a short story about a small American farm town where one person is killed each year to make the crops grow. In the tale, a woman is ritually stoned to death by a large crowd that includes her husband, her 12-year-old daughter, and her 4-year-old son.

While the story always stimulated students' sense of right and wrong whenever she taught it for over twenty years, Haugaard found that discussion now yielded no moral comments, even following her persistent questions. One man said the ritual killing described "almost seems a need." Asked if she believed in human sacrifice, a woman said, "I really don't know. If it was a religion of long standing...." Haugaard writes: "I was stunned. This was a woman who wrote so passionately of saving the whales, of concern for the rain forests, of her rescue and tender care of a stray dog."

[Ed.: Hamilton College philosophy professor Robert Simon wrote in the same issue of the Chronicle that between a tenth and a fifth of his students did not believe that they had the right to condemn the Nazis.]

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The American Civil Liberties Union went to court in Long Beach, California, to block a new rule requiring school uniforms. The organization charged that the city's poor couldn't afford to purchase the uniforms, even though the school district had committed itself to providing uniforms to any child needing one. Proponents say that adoption of uniforms eliminates students' need to purchase expensive designer clothes, and that they decrease the incidence of violence and sexual assault while improving attendance. Still, ACLU president Nadine Strossen called the uniforms "enforced conformity."

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In the face of a giant new highway bill, congressional lawmakers complained of a stipulation that a percentage of highway funds be earmarked for historical preservation of sites whose only connection to highways is that they are visible from the road. These projects have included restoring a Shaker barn outside Albany for $159,500, preserving the ancient mounds of oyster shells along the Maine coast for $364,000, and even spiffing up the West Virginia State Capitol for $620,000.

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