“[Trumbo wrote with wit, but one letter, to the head of the school where his youngest daughter had been humiliated because of her father's legal problems, was not funny at all:] This slow murder of the mind and heart and spirit of a young child is the proud outcome of those patriotic meetings held by a few parents under the sponsorship of the PTA and the Bluebirds, ... It is a living test of the high principles of both organizations - principles noble in word, ignoble and savage in application. ... I should like you to watch how decently and bravely our daughter tries to suppress her bewilderment at her first encounter with barbarism parading as American virtue. Barbarism which began at your school among adult persons.”
