Unit 8
Chapter 3
III. Reading
The Founding Streakers
So far, it is not a scheduled part of the nation's bicentennial celebration, but "streaking," as it turns out, is as old as the Republic.
In the spring of 1776, a group of Continental Army soldiers camping near a pond in Brooklyn, N.Y., would "come out of the water and run to the houses naked with a design to insult and wound female decency," according to papers recently unearthed by the Rhode Island Historical Society.
Public outrage at such brazen behavior prompted an anti-streaking lecture from Gen. Nathanael Greene, the Revolutionary Army's youngest general. Greene scolded two Rhode Island regiments for their "scandalous conduct," noting that "our enemies have sought to fix a stigma on the New England people as being rude and barbarous . . . for heaven's sake don't let your behavior serve as an example to confirm these observations." At one point in his reprimand, the general asked: "Is there no ambition left alive but that of being scandalous?" Two centuries later, the answer still seems to be "nay".
- Newsweek
IV. Quotation
Scandal is gossip made tedious by morality.
V. Activity
Discuss the relationship between:
1) streaking and scandal
2) scandal and gossip
3) gossip and streaking
4) streaking and morality
5) gossip and morality
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