Pro-choice supporters are often heard using the cool language of the courts and the vocabulary of rights. Americans who are deeply ambivalent about abortion often miss the sound of caring.
Ellen GoodmanIf there's a single message passed down from each generation of American parents to their children, it is a two-word line: Better Yourself. And if there's a temple of self-betterment in each town, it is the local school. We have worshipped there for some time.
Ellen Goodmaninstant opinion is an oxymoron. You don't get real opinions in an instant. You get reactions.
Ellen GoodmanThe same people who tell us that smoking doesn't cause cancer are now telling us that advertising cigarettes doesn't cause smoking.
Ellen GoodmanWe continually want to unmask our heroes as if there were more to be learned from their nakedness than from their choice of clothing.
Ellen GoodmanWho's counting? It was, of course, the minority who were counting. It always is. Most of the women I know today would dearly like to use their fingers and toes for some activity more enthralling than counting. They have been counting for so long. But the peculiar problem of the new math is that every time we stop adding, somebody starts subtracting. At the very least (the advanced students will understand this) the rate of increase slows. ... The minority members of any group or profession have two answers: They can keep score or they can lose.
Ellen Goodman