Cynthia ( “Cindy”) Mason Jaquith, present-day editor of the Socialist Workers Party’s weekly newspaper, The Militant, comes from an upper middle class family in Lexington, Massachusetts.
Her father, Wilbur Jaquith, was a corporation lawyer raking in about $20,000 a year during the 1960s. Mr. Jaquith was a graduate of Dartmouth College which also happened to be the college of Carleton's dean, Richard C. Gilman.
Her high school background was a silky portrait of the American dream: member of the church youth group, editorial director of the school newspaper, member of the girls’ Glee Club, patrol leader in the Girl Scouts, member of the literature club and the bridge club, an ardent hockey player and a “candy striper” (this means she did voluntary social work wearing the traditional red and white striped uniform.)
Her rumpus room at home was adorned with two field hockey certificates and a first prize she won for jewelry-making in a school arts and crafts contest.
Her achievements in the Girl Scouts were superlative: first class award, a curved bar, a five-point program and a wing badge.
When the townspeople of Lexington marched through the streets in the annual town parade, it was little Cindy Jaquith who took the microphone and led the pledge of allegiance:
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands — one nation under God.
In her application form to Carleton she was asked what work experience she had. She replied:
Babysitting, Girl Scout leader’s aide and candy striper.
She listed her hobbies as reading, water sports, tennis, field hockey, knitting, coin and stamp collecting.
None of this indicated a hint of radicalism, non-conformism or the future “revolutionary” who would travel to Tehran in January 1979 to found the Iranian Socialist Workers Party in the Intercontinental Hotel.
Her application to Carleton contained a priceless piece of prose reflecting the cosseted world of middle America.
To a small child, she wrote, the eternity of one day can seem unbearable, but the vast space of seventeen years becomes almost an impossibility.
Yet here I am, a senior in high school with seventeen short years behind me and a whole new experience before me next year.
I was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and I have always lived in nearby Lexington. While I do not say ‘Hahvahd Yahd,’ my background does lie entirely in New England; therefore, to balance my provincial outlook, I would like to attend a college outside of the Northeast.
My serious education began in the seventh grade when I entered an experimental system of acceleration and enrichment, called the Advanced Program. Stimulated by my courses in Literature, French and archeology, I developed and retained an interest in the humanities.
The major influence that school has had on my life was to expose me to the regards of reading. It was through reading Dr. Karl Menninger's “The Human Mind” that I first considered a career as a psychiatrist.
The functioning of man's most vital organ, his brain, has always fascinated me and I feel that in this age of speed and pressure the need for mental health is doubly urgent.
Beyond my reading and academic studies I have participated in musical concerts and plays, sports, journalism and Girl Scouts. The latter two activities have commanded most of my time and interest.
As Editorial Director of the school newspaper, I try to arouse the entire student body with thought-provoking editorials on topics ranging from the Beatles to the morals of cheating.
I have enjoyed Scouting because I believe it to be the best way of specializing in one field such as outdoor camping or aviation, while learning the meaning of friendship and cooperation between two troop members or among international Girl Scouts.
At a scout camp I gained the most useful experience of my life, as a counselor in training. Although I had attended camps before, this was my first opportunity to practice the techniques of teaching and disciplining children.
From this apprenticeship came a most valuable lesson: that in teaching others to be responsible for their actions, I must first be responsible for my own. Therefore, I cannot expect my campers to follow the law that ‘ a Girl Scout obeys orders,’ if I myself disobey the established rules of the camp.
At the moment the next four years of my life are uncertain, but I anticipate that this period will determine the direction of my adult career.
Certainly, the final sentence carried ominous truth. She was selected for Carleton but she did not leave as a psychiatrist or a Girl Scout, but as a full-time professional employee of the Socialist Workers Party.
Her record at Carleton howls with normality and not a trace of student rebellion let alone Trotskyism. She worked as a staff reporter on the Carletonian newspaper, did local social work, joined the hockey club, became fire marshal in the girls' dormitory in Myers Hall, took part in the Rational Living Seminar, became a member of the Winter Carnival Banquet Committee and also continued her career in the Girl Scouts.
She did the props for the college production of Ibsen's “The Sea Gull” and joined the judo club. The nearest she came to anything which would be remotely called “political” was when she joined the Carleton Humanist Society.
When she filled in a careers form she indicated to the placements officer that she would like to work in the field of psychology. As second choices she listed social case work, Asian studies and “foreign work.”
When she was “plugged into” the SWP, she found fulfilment at least for “foreign work” when she became a protege of the late Joseph Hansen in the New York offices of the weekly Intercontinental Press.