Catherine Vogt's Wild Ride

As Tribune columnist John Kass writes today, Catherine Vogt is "something of a celebrity now."

"By the time you read this, she will have already finished a round of TV and radio interviews, including a PBS spot for a Philadelphia station. It's all somewhat unsettling for a 14-year-old girl who had important high school entrance exams Thursday and a tryout for The Music Man at Gwendolyn Brooks Middle School in Oak Park."

And as hokey as it sounds, Vogt's celebrity derives from an experiment she did involving her classmates but one that is really a lesson for adults in the Age of Obama. Vogt wore a "McCain Girl" t-shirt one day to her mostly liberal school and took notes on the reactions she got. She did the same when she wore an "Obama Girl" t-shirt the following day. Kass learned of the disheartening results and first wrote about it on Thursday, though Vogt's story appeared in the Wednesday Journal on Tuesday.

"[Y]ou know America is truly supportive of diversity of opinion, when children must whisper for fear of being ostracized, heckled and crucifixed," Kass wrote derisively.

Now the Catherine Vogt story is banging around the blogosphere.

The local Marathon Pundit notes that Oak Park is "the type of town where you see a lot of those 'Coexist' bumper stickers . . . I guess Oak Park is selective in its tolerance."

Nationally, conservative blogger Michelle Malkin picked up the story - it now has 100 comments.

And Big John Howell and Cisco Cotto talked to Vogt on Thursday for their radio show.

While conservative media has been the most eager to honor Vogt, Kass writes today that political intolerance cuts both ways. It would be nice if the liberal blogosphere gave this story as much attention as the conservative blogosphere - and if both learned something from it. After all, isn't that Catherine's point?

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