Early this year, a Frenchman commandeered a helicopter and ordered it flown to a prison outside Paris, where he helped two friends, who were inmates at the time, escape. A few days later, one of the inmates was captured. Recently, the two other men were caught, hiding out in Spain. We saw a report of this on television with a friend. Our friend said, “Wow, that was so daring I am all for it.” We could see what he meant. We could see it so clearly that we have made a list of our own of things that are so daring—well …
Instead of adding books to school libraries, removing books from school libraries: so daring I’m all for it.
A Secretary of the Interior who actually hates the interior: so daring I’m all for it.
Someone who is against a human-rights policy chosen to be in charge of our human-rights policy: so daring I’m all for it.
Phil Donahue: so daring I’m all for it.
Mayor Koch: so daring I’m all for it.
Reviving the HUAC: so daring I’m all for it.
Abandoning the Voting Rights Act: so daring I’m all for it.
Revoking the Clean Air Act: so daring I’m all for it.
Suing your parents: so daring I’m all for it.
Writing a book in which you reveal sensational and shameful details of your personal life: so daring I’m all for it.
Tearing down a beautiful old building and putting in its place an ugly new building: so daring I’m all for it.
The arms race: so daring I’m all for it.
World War III: so daring I’m all for it.
—July 27, 1981