If there is anything more pathetic than a presidential candidate who can't name the government departments he previously said he would eliminate, it is a group of college students rioting because a football coach they admired was fired for his indifference to allegations of child abuse leveled against one his assistants.

Here's a quote from one of the rioters:

"We got rowdy, and we got maced," Jeff Heim, 19, said rubbing his red, teary eyes. "But make no mistake, the board started this riot by firing our coach. They tarnished a legend."

I am not one of those who argue that this country is in some sort of decline, but Mr. Heim does not symbolize an ascendant America.


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