Sorting out truth from lies

Suzie Harrison

The Red Scare and Communist witch hunts may seem like a piece of

America’s grim past, but it all was quite alive for students in

Krista Dornbush’s 11th-grade history class at Laguna Beach High

School on Monday morning.

“In 1953 Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were executed for espionage,”

Dornbush said. “McCarthy and his committee started probing producers,

directors, actors and actresses in Hollywood.”

She asked the class if they knew why there was concern about

Hollywood and its voice, explaining it was because they are

prominent, popular figures and the government wanted to stop them

through propaganda. They were afraid of the power of Hollywood and

thus formed the infamous Hollywood 10, a blacklist of certain

industry people who spoke openly.

She also explained how Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s paranoia expanded to

other areas.

“In 1950, McCarthy said that he had a list of 205 names, men known

to be ‘commies’ working for the State Department,” Dornbush said.

“McCarthy was painting himself into a corner.”

To illustrate what it was like in the U.S. during that time,

Dornbush’s class played a game.

“I’m going to give each one of you a piece of paper that will

either be blank or will have a red dot,” Dornbush said. “You cannot

show your paper to anyone, cannot let anyone know.”

She explained that the mission of those who got a red dot was to

get into the largest groups of non-dots and vice versa.

“You’re just going to have to trust people,” Dornbush said. “If

you you’re a red dot, you need to lie and look innocent.”

Watching the students play the game was fascinating, as one by one

the students opened their tiny piece of paper to see whether they

were a communist or not.

They broke into groups questioning each other to see if they could

discern who was a red or not.

“Do you trust them?” Dornbush asked. “Are they to be trusted?”

When the game came to an end with four “no reds” forming the

largest group, she asked them what logic they used in forming their

opinion of trust.

“It’s easy to trust people,” Conley Sampson, 16, said. “It was

hard to tell who was who. I learned not to trust what everyone says

because it could be a lie.”

It made them think deeper about how it related to them.

“I couldn’t lie,” Katherine Janson, 17, said. “I’d be screwed if I

was a Communist, I’d be in big trouble.”

Jennifer Bunney, 17, was equally impressed with her impression of

the game.

“I learned that you have to be very careful who to trust and who

not to trust,” Bunney said. “You can never be too careful.”