Word: birching
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Carter himself will occupy the plush Aspen Lodge, which was extravagantly refurbished by Richard Nixon. Begin will stay in Birch house and Sadat in Dogwood, both located about 50 yds. from Aspen Lodge. The guests' "cabins" are similar, each with two large bedrooms, two bathrooms and a large sitting room with a fireplace. Cooks at Aspen Lodge are on 24-hr, call to prepare any dish the guests order, and they have a list of the two visitors' gastronomic favorites. Sadat, nonetheless, is bringing his own chef; the Egyptian leader is a health buff who carefully watches his diet. Kosher...
...extends much farther than the eye can see: a great tapestry pf shimmering blue lakes and islands forested with silver birch, black spruce and majestic red pines. Eagles and ospreys wheel overhead, while moose and wolves roam the woods as they did in the days of the 17th century voyageurs. Crystal-clear lakes teem with enough trout and walleyed pike to make even the fishing novice feel like the compleat angler. At dusk the call of the loon is heard...
Identical rhetoric about campers learning to "build a better world" can be heard from Joseph Mehrten-only he is a spokesman for the eleven John Birch Society camps scattered across the country. Here the camp song is the Battle Hymn of the Republic, swimming races are meant to be won, and authority is still in vogue. "If you are late for a class, you get clean-up duties," says Mehrten...
Founded in 1970, the Birch camps take in some 1,100 youths between the ages of 14 and 22 every summer. The one-week sessions involve rigorous instruction in right-wing doctrine. Twenty lectures on "the rudiments of Americanism" are devoted to such themes as the dangers of gun control, Big Government and the Equal Rights Amendment. "The forces that work for total government" constitute the real enemy, campers are taught...
Both the Hayden/Fonda and the John Birch camps aim to produce future leaders of the Movement (left or right), not docile students. Says Hayden: "There is a real clash between what they pick up in the camp and what they go back to." For the Birchers, what their children learn at camp provides a corrective to the subversive ideas taught in school. "The kids are indoctrinated with statism in the public schools," claims Karen Fiddament, whose daughter attended a Birch Society camp this summer. "The camps indoctrinate them with another point of view...