I interviewed Linda Greenhouse a while back. She was the Times’ chief Supreme Court correspondent before retiring to teach at Yale Law School here in New Haven.

The occasion for the interview was the publication of Just a Journalist: On the Press, Life, and the Spaces Between (2015). In it, she recalls her generation as “idealistic Americans who believed they would not make the same mistakes as the previous generation that had mired the United States in an unwinnable war in Vietnam.” As I wrote:

But during the summer of 2006, Greenhouse had a moment of horrid clarity.

The country was again mired in war, this time in Iraq, and her age-mate, George W. Bush, had authorized torture and “black sites” while creating legal limbo for inmates at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

“I cried that night in the Simon and Garfunkel concert out of the realization that my faith had been misplaced. Our generation had not proved to be the solution.

“We were the problem.”

2006 was long before “OK, Boomer.”

—John Stoehr

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More

• Trump asked Bill Barr to say he broke no laws extorting Ukraine’s leader.

• Tom Steyer’s aide tried bribery to get endorsements.

• Michael Tomasky puts the Democratic field in a historical context.

• Yes, Katie Hill’s career was smeared to death.

• Kamala Harris still has a chance.

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POLITICS IN PLAIN ENGLISH!

This is a civics program I co-host every month at New Haven’s Institute Library. The next one is on Nov. 12 (next Tuesday). Special guests include Frank Harris, columnist for the Hartford Courant and a professor of journalism at Southern Connecticut State University; and Batya Ungar Sargon, opinion editor for The Forward in New York. We’re going to talk about a lot of things but especially religion, race and politics.

Please come if you can. I’d love to see you there! —JS

IF YOU GO

What: Politics in Plain English
When: Nov. 12 (Tuesday) at 7:30 p.m.
Where: The Institute Library, 847 Chapel Street, New Haven.
How much: FREE! FREE! FREE!
Info: For more, click here.

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