Over the past several years we’ve watched as colleges and universities have gotten into the travel business. It’s a way some of the faculty can exercise their expertise in history, literature, language, foreign affairs, and the like by conducting seminars during the off-season while students are on summer break. In addition, these tours, which are rather pricey to say the least, are surely a ripe source of income.
Accordingly, from time to time I receive fancy brochures from the alumni societies of both Williams College, where I was an undergraduate, and Notre Dame, where I got my law degree. Ordinarily they quickly go into the circular file without even being opened. However, because I’ve always had a desire to tour Scandinavia and eastern Europe — Poland, the Czech Republic, the Baltic states and eastern Russia — just for the hell of it recently I took a closer look at a brochure entitled “Saxony Cruise plus Prague and Berlin” billed as “an exclusive educational and travel experience.” The tour group will cruise down the Elbe River aboard the “MV Katharina Von Bora,” the base of operations and which, from the brochure, looks to me like a very fancy barge.
The itinerary includes seven cities and towns in Germany and the Czech Republic located on or near the Elbe. One of them is Torgau, a “beautiful Renaissance town dramatically set on a cliff overlooking the Elbe” which is “a monument to the Lutheran spirit of reform.” Even though for the better part of ten years beginning in the mid-80s I was a member of a Lutheran congregation (serving as an acolyte and member of the church council), I never bothered to learn much about Lutheran history or, for that matter, Lutheran theology. Thus I know very little about Martin Luther, except that, as everyone knows, in 1517 he nailed Ninety-five Theses to the door of a church in Wittenberg and initiated the German Reformation.
The tour includes visits to the German cities of Wittenberg and Torgau, both of which are steeped in the history of the Reformation. To be seen are churches, museums, exhibits, the first Protestant place of worship, a Renaissance castle with a chapel consecrated by Martin Luther, the original Gutenberg Bible — all of which are rapturously described. When it comes to the day spent in Torgau, the brochure sets out the following highlight: “View the tomb of Martin Luther’s wife in the Marienkirche.” (Her name, by the way, was Katharina Von Bora.)
But wow! The tomb of Martin Luther’s wife! Just imagine it! To actually see it! I guess that’s enough to get your touristic juices flowing, right? And just to think . . . well . . . err . . . Hell, I didn’t even know the dude was married!
• Is There a Gold Medal for Celebrating? In Val D’Isere, France, last week the United States Ski Team was looking good, seeking another victory on the World Cup circuit. At the top of the list of U.S. skiers was the blonde, attractive Lindsey Vonn, who won the overall World Cup title last season and held a 1,114 to 935 lead over Maria Riesch of Germany in this season’s standings. On Monday, Lindsey had won both the Super-G (the super giant slalom) and the downhill, and was poised for the giant slalom.
But another event intervened — the Monday night victory celebration, an absolute must. Here, as fate would have it, Lindsey didn’t fare too well. She severed part of a tendon in her right thumb as a result of cutting herself on a broken champagne bottle. She was flown to a private hospital in Innsbruck, Austria, for surgery, then spent a day with experts attempting to construct a splint to enable her to grip her pole. Lindsey missed the giant slalom on Friday, but showed up for the regular slalom on Saturday, the final women’s race of the championships. Unfortunately, she fell and Maria Riesch of Germany went on to win.
When she fell in the last race at Val D’Isere, Lindsey landed on her side and held up her injured thumb to avoid damaging it further. “It’s OK,” she said. “It was hurting and then I crashed, so now it’s hurting even more.” So, between now and the next World Cup event in Tarvisio, Italy, this week, Lindsey presumably will be taking it easy on the slopes — remaining at the lodge and devoting her time to practicing drinking, no doubt.
All said and done, however, Lindsey’s indiscretion wasn’t any worse than Mark Phelps’, also an exceptional young athlete who happens to be rather fun-loving. Gee, whaddaya know — young people who are fun-loving? (But does A-Rod fit into this category?) Actually, I hope Lindsey puts it behind her, gets back in shape and does well.
Here’s mud in your eye, Lindsey girl.
• Thanks, Mom. Those of us who have seen “Milk,” the Oscar-bound biographical movie of the activist Harvey Milk, the first gay person in the U.S. to be elected to a major political office, vicariously experienced the ruthless oppression and intense suffering homosexual men and women actually experienced — and in many places continue to experience — pretty much on a regular basis. The movie, by the way, is a must-see; and while everything about the film and everyone in the film is really good, Sean Penn’s performance is over the top.
Which calls to mind a report in the current issue of “Civil Liberties,” the ACLU’s national newsletter, about Brian Carrell of Roscoe, Illinois, a small, conservative town near the Wisconsin border. Brian is a 2008 winner of the ACLU Youth Activist Scholarship Program, which honors graduating high school seniors from around the country who make outstanding contributions to the struggle for civil liberties and the rights of young people.
You see, Brian is gay. Last year he tried to organize his high school’s first Gay Straight Alliance. School administrators sent his proposal to the district school board, where anti-gay groups packed the room at every board and subcommittee meeting, attempting to argue and shout down the start-up of a GSA. Despite the opposition, Brian started an aggressive internet campaign to rally GSA supporters and volunteered to be a plaintiff in a lawsuit against the school (to be brought by the ACLU) if the board voted against the proposal. Thanks in large part to Brian’s efforts, the school board ultimately voted 5-2 in favor of the GSA.
Later, Brian made the following statement: “I believe it is paramount to a free and open democracy that all voices are acknowledged, regardless of age, race, creed, sexual orientation, or social status. . . . Now that I have seen what a group of students working together can accomplish, I am encouraged to stay active in the democratic processes of my community and my nation.”
Oh. There was one other obstacle Brian had to overcome in his effort to create a GSA in his school: speaking against him at all the public meetings was . . . his mom.
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