Last month we reported on various proposals scheduled to be presented at the Delegate Assembly meeting at the annual meeting of the Modern Language Association for 2003. As we noted, four of the five proposals were submitted on behalf of the Radical Caucus in English and Modern Languages. It was a pretty predictable menu. One called for the repeal of the U.S.A. Patriot Act. Another called upon the MLA to denounce “government war-making projects.” Etc., etc. The pièce de résistance was the proposal that called on the MLA to support its members “in conducting critical analysis of war talk, in public forums and, as appropriate, in classrooms.” In other words, as we pointed out, this proposal demanded that the MLA condone turning the classroom into a forum for ideological indoctrination. Our deadline was a couple of weeks before the MLA convention took place, so we were unable to share the results of the vote with our r ...

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