This Helen Thomas Thing Is Tearing Bethesda Apart!

by Nate Freeman

I made a brief sojourn to my hometown this weekend only to find my twin brothers and father engaged in a shouting match, and I soon found out why: Helen Thomas had been sacked from her role as the speaker at my former high school’s commencement ceremony. Even before today’s announcement of her retirement as a Hearst columnist, Thomas had reached an agreement with my cherished alma mater-Walt Whitman High School, in Bethesda, Maryland-to bow out from the June 14 services.

The decision, of course, came out of the shitstorm of controversy over her suggestion that Israelis should “get the hell out of Palestine.” In its wake, DC-based publications have begun to chime in on the whole turn of events. In his op-ed for the Washington Post, Richard Cohen mentioned the Whitman graduation debacle at the end of his HelenThomasGate analysis, calling the cancellation “understandable,” but also suggesting “it would be wonderful, though, if Thomas could go through with it and tell the graduates what she had learned in recent days.” And earlier today Howard Kurtz answered a question regarding the graduation during a live Q&A; on the Post’s site.

And while it’s no surprise to see upper-middle-class parents in a D.C. suburb up in arms about this sort of thing, I know what it’s like to be a confused kid at a Whitman graduation, and I know there’s more at play here. The long-lost ignorant high school senior inside of me wants to know… what do the kids think?

Well, apparently the kids are thinking, too! The Black & White-the Whitman student paper that I was the editor of a million years ago-is reporting that the students are prepping for their four years of parent-funded half-assed activism (that’s what college is for, right?) by feigning some independent opinions. The article says that after the fateful Thomas comment was leaked, senior Erica Bloom took to her friends list and invited her buddies to a Facebook event organizing a protest. By Sunday, Principal Alan Goodwin made the decision official in an email to Whitman parents.

In an e-mail to Whitnet Sunday night, Goodwin explained that graduation is designed for celebration, not a venue for divisiveness.

“Although this development may understandably disappoint some parents and students because of their different viewpoints,” Goodwin wrote. “I am asking, once again, for all of us to focus collectively on the jubilant celebration of 450 seniors and their families who have worked hard to share this festive occasion within the Whitman community.”

But even before the cancellation was announced, dissent brewed among the student body. The Facebook event was far from static! The Black & White article reports that a few students took a break from their usual diet of photo commenting to throw in their two cents on the event page’s message board.

“In the audience at graduation, there will likely be Holocaust survivors and people, like me, whose relatives were killed in the Holocaust,” senior Emily Massey wrote on the Facebook event. “Having Thomas speak would be deeply offensive to all of us.”

While many students are angered by Thomas’ comments, around 215 students are “not attending” the protest because they felt Thomas’ political opinions don’t have an implication on her credibility as a speaker.

“I would pass on hearing about her insulting and flawed political views any day,” senior Dena Goodman wrote on the Facebook event. “However, we would definitely be passing up a great opportunity to hear her speak about her (really long) life and impressive career.”

The event to organize a protest has been shut down, but another Facebook group entitled “Helen Thomas should have been our graduation speaker”-started by Whitman senior Will Bartlett-is still active. “This group affirms a belief in reasonable discussion and feel that in this scenario, a clear minority was able to override a larger majority by distorting the issues and discussion,” the group’s description reads. It currently has 100 members, most of which are Whitman students, and a slew of comments on its wall. In fact, things got complicated.

Principal Goodwin also told the Washington Post that he received calls and emails from Whitman students (and, of course, Whitman parents) calling for Thomas to be replaced.

But Facebook-based picketing aside, can we really say that these young high schoolers-who are probably still hungover from all that Mike’s Hard (and Ice?) they consumed at their senior beach week-have a firm grasp on what’s going on here? Or do their fresh eyes and untainted souls share with us insight that the rest of us are too jaded to provide? More importantly, will my mother still force me to sit through this Helen Thomas-less service just to watch my brothers walk the stage in their shitty polyester gowns?

In looking at the decent amount of well-conceived activism here, it seems my high school’s current students do, in fact, recognize what’s at stake. They’ve read enough to gain a cursory knowledge of how this graduation speech fits into the entire story, and having done so, they’re only a few clicks away from creating a Facebook group and affecting potential change.

But let’s be honest-these kids are all 18 now, and it’s warm outside. In a few weeks they’ll get their diplomas, settle into a summer of bumming around the suburbs trying to get older siblings to buy them beer, and order will be restored.

Nate Freeman is a proprietor of The ## and a former columnist for the Duke Chronicle-and one of The Awl’s summer reporters.