SECOND PREFACE
"McCARTHYISM"
Cory Matthews wrote the name in large letters on the blackboard in his history class. "Who can tell me about McCarthyism?"
"One of Charlie McCarthy's famous one-liners?" said the blond-haired girl sitting in the front row.
"Nice try, Maya," Said a chagrinned Cory.
"Communism?" said Riley Matthews, Cory's daughter and Maya's best friend, "We've talked about it before."
"Very good. You're in the ball park."
"Senator Joe McCarthy," said a voice from further back in the classroom. The voice was Lucas Friar, Riley's boyfriend.
"So far, so good," Cory replied. "What else?"
"McCarthy was famous for exposing communists in the 1950s." said Farkle Minkus.
"Actually," Cory began, "He was in-famous for accusing people of being communists. More often than not he never proved they were."
"So the people he accused of being communists actually weren't?" asked Lucas.
"Not necessarily," Cory replied. "We don't really know if most of them were communists or not."
The class looked a little confused as Cory continued.
"But what made McCarthy infamous was that he often bypassed due process of law by prejudging people. That is to say, he presumed they were communists and essentially never gave them a chance to defend themselves. Worse yet, when Senator McCarthy made his accusations, he often resorted to using 'half-truths'."
"Meaning he used something that was only half-true and made it look like it was all true," said Smackle, Farkle's girlfriend.
"Verisimilitude." Said Farkle.
"Watch your language!" said Maya.
"You're close, Farkle," said Cory. "McCarthy used statements that were actually true, but they were only a part of the whole truth. McCarthy and his staff used this and other tactics that were unfair, unethical, and sometimes even illegal. Added to which, he would accuse his colleagues and people in the media of being communists simply because they disagreed with his tactics, and that came to be known as…" Cory points to the word written on the blackboard,
"McCarthyism." the whole class recited together.
"You've heard the expression 'Innocent until proven guilty'? McCarthy apparently believed that an accused person was 'guilty unless proven innocent'."
Cory looked around the classroom. "Have any of you ever been accused of doing something that you know you didn't do, or more to the point, has anyone ever accused you of something that you know you did without their knowing the whole story behind it?"