APRIL 2007

Culture of Fear: Poetry Professor Becomes Terror Suspect

By Kazim Ali, New America Media. Posted April 24, 2007.

A poetry professor in a small college in the Northeast decides to recycle old manuscripts and becomes an object of suspicion.

On April 19, after a day of teaching classes at Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania, I went out to my car and grabbed a box of old poetry manuscripts from the front seat of my little white Beetle, carried it across the street and put it next to the trashcan outside Wright Hall. The poems were from poetry contests I had been judging and the box was heavy. I had previously left my recycling boxes there and they were always picked up and taken away by the trash department.

A young man from ROTC was watching me as I got into my car and drove away. I thought he was looking at my car, which has black flower decals and sometimes inspires strange looks. I later discovered that I, in my dark skin, am sometimes not even a person to the people who look at me. Instead, in spite of my peacefulness, my committed opposition to all aggression and war, I am a threat by my very existence, a threat just living in the world as a Muslim body.

Upon my departure, he called the local police department and told them a man of Middle Eastern descent driving a heavily decaled white Beetle with out of state plates and no campus parking sticker had just placed a box next to the trash can. My car has NY plates, but he got the rest of it wrong. I have two stickers on my car. One is my highly visible faculty parking sticker and the other, which I just don't have the heart to take off these days, says, "Kerry/Edwards: For a Stronger America."

Because of my recycling, the bomb squad came, then the state police. Because of my recycling, buildings were evacuated, classes were canceled, the campus was closed. No. Not because of my recycling. Because of my dark body. No. Not even that. Because of his fear. Because of the way he saw me. Because of the culture of fear, mistrust, hatred and suspicion that is carefully cultivated in the media, by the government, by people who claim to want to keep us "safe."

These are the days of orange alerts, school lock-downs, and endless war. We are preparing for it, training for it, looking for it, and so, of course, in the most innocuous instances -- a professor wanting to hurry home, hefting his box of discarded poetry -- we find it.

That man in the parking lot didn't even see me. He saw my darkness. He saw my Middle Eastern descent. This is ironic because though my grandfathers came from Egypt, I am Indian, a South Asian, and could never be mistaken for a Middle Eastern man by anyone who had ever met one.

One of my colleagues was in the gathering crowd, trying to figure out what had happened. She heard my description -- a Middle Eastern man driving a white Beetle with out of state plates -- and knew immediately they were talking about me and realized that the box must have been manuscripts I was discarding. She approached them and told them I was a professor on the faculty there. Immediately the campus police officer said, "What country is he from?"

"What country is he from?!" she yelled, indignant.

"Ma'am, you are associated with the suspect. You need to step away and lower your voice," he told her.

At some length, several of my faculty colleagues were able to get through to the police and get me on a cell phone where I explained to the university president and then to the state police that the box contained old poetry manuscripts that needed to be recycled. The police officer told me that in the current climate I needed to be more careful about how I behaved. "When I recycle?" I asked.

The university president appreciated my distress about the situation but denied that the call had anything to do with my race or ethnic background. The spokesperson of the university called it an "honest mistake," not referring to the young man from ROTC giving in to his worst instincts and calling the police but referring to me who made the mistake of being dark-skinned and putting my recycling next to the trashcan.

The university's bizarrely minimal statement lets everyone know that the "suspicious package" beside the trashcan ended up being, indeed, trash. It goes on to say, "We appreciate your cooperation during the incident and remind everyone that safety is a joint effort by all members of the campus community."

What does that community mean to me, a person who has to walk by the ROTC offices every day on my way to my own office just down the hall -- who was watched, noted and reported, all in a day's work? Today, we gave in willingly and wholeheartedly to a culture of fear and blaming and profiling. It is deemed perfectly appropriate behavior to spy on one another and police one another and report on one another. Such behaviors exist most strongly in closed, undemocratic and fascist societies.

The university report does not mention the root cause of the alarm. That package became "suspicious" because of who was holding it, who put it down, who drove away. Me.

It was poetry, I kept insisting to the state policeman who was questioning me on the phone. It was poetry I was putting out to be recycled.

My body exists politically in a way I cannot prevent. For a moment today, without even knowing it, driving away from campus in my little Beetle, exhausted after a day of teaching, listening to Justin Timberlake on the radio, I ceased to be a person when a man I had never met looked straight through me and saw the violence in his own heart.

Ilan Pappe moving to University of Exeter; Jewish students try to block his appointment

Date: Sun, 8 Apr 2007 07:02:05 +0100 From: Rowan Berkeley <rowan.berkeley@googlemail.com>

Jewish students attacked by Israeli academic

Israeli academic lashes out at 'Jewish student lobby,' students reject allegations

Yaakov Lappin, YNet, 04.05.07 http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3385189,00.html

[notice the spin - attack the critic for endangering freedom of aspeech - cf. global warming, and the attacks on those who have spent thirty years establishing the case - RB]

Dr. Ilan Pappe, of Haifa University, has been instrumental in organizing previous, failed attempts to boycott Israeli institutions in Britain, and is now set to leave Israel and take up a chair of history at the University of Exeter in south west England, where he hopes to set up a "center for Palestinian studies."

An article in the British Times Higher Education Supplement (THES), entitled 'Historian hits out at Jewish student lobby,' extensively quoted Pappe as complaining that UK Jewish students have formed a "lobby" aimed at quashing open debate on the Middle East. "…Professor Pappe may find that Britain is not the haven of peace and tolerance he seeks. Jewish students' groups have already complained about his appointment, saying he is anti-Zionist," the article said. "Jewish student organizations have ceased to care for the interests and concerns of Jewish students but have become a front for the Zionist point of view. They act as an arm of the Israeli embassy," Pappe was quoted as saying.

But Pappe's allegations were dismissed by Jonathan Levy, Chairperson of the Union of Jewish Students (UJS) in Britain. "His allegations are factually wrong," Levy told Ynetnews. "We take every opportunity to have a balanced debate and have a conversation. I'd like to see evidence to the contrary," he said. "We are the only national representative of Jewish students, and we have democratic processes. Our actions represent the majority of students in this country," Levy added. "We are not acting on behalf of any embassy. And it happens to be the fact that the vast majority of Jewish students in this country support the State of Israel, the freedom of Israeli academics to practice their profession in this country and in any country they want to, and to be able to act as Jewish students in a way that is free," he said. Levy added that Pappe's presence in Britain "will be used to promote the boycott issue, which is ineffective, and which goes against the freedom of speech that he thinks is so important. This will do nothing but create a hostile atmosphere." Mitch Simmons, Campaigns Director of the UJS, said: "Jewish students are not against free speech in any way. We are for proper robust debate and dialogue and not diatribes from one side to demonize the other." "You have to expect to get as good as you give," Simmons added, saying: "People who disagree with you are going to say it clearly. Pappe has extreme views, abhorrent to much of British academia, and to Jewish and non-Jewish students. They have every right to say they disagree with him. This is a free society, as it is in Israel. If you're a strong academic, you can deal with it, and stop whining about it."

A British-Jewish academic, who asked to remain anonymous, said Pappe's allegations were themselves an attempt to silence opposing voices. "This is not a defense of free speech, but a suppression of it," he said. "Pappe and others of his view confuse disagreement with lobbying. They appear to be incapable of accepting the fact that many Jewish students as well as non-Jewish students do not accept their opinions. When these students express disagreement, they are accused of lobbying," he added.

The academic also attacked the nature of the Times' reporting of Pappe's comments, saying: "The coverage in the Times Higher Education Supplement - which is celebrity coverage - provides him with a platform for attacking Jewish students. They are responding to extreme anti-Israel activity on campus. In fact, Jewish student have not in general made any effort to restrict free discussion of Middle Eastern affairs on British campuses but have themselves been exposed to a considerable amount of abuse, which occasionally crosses the line into racism and defamation," he said. "Talk of Jewish lobbies - even if not intended as such - is little more than an instrument for traditional bigotry. The THES has decided to promote this toxic discourse," he added.

The source also noted the "minimal coverage" given to the cancellation of a lecture at Leeds University on "Islamic anti-Semitism in the Middle East." The talk, which was supposed to be delivered by German historian Dr Matthias Kuntzel, was cancelled by the University of Leeds's administration which cited "security concerns." "This was one of the most grotesque suppressions of academic freedom that has taken place in British universities in recent times," the source said, adding: "Interestingly, neither the university union nor the mainstream press, in particular the THES saw fit to make a major issue of it."

Regardless of events unfolding in the UK, many of Pappe's colleagues in Israel are glad to see him go, according to Menachem Kellner, Professor of Jewish History at Haifa University. "He is not a popular man in

Israel, I'm very pleased," Kellner told Ynetnews, adding: "He's done his best to blacken the name of his university, and misrepresented it. I can't be help but be happy about this. Let's hope he stays there."

THESE CRAZY DO-GOOD FOOLS HAVE SET ALIGHT THE PIPES PROGRAMME IN UNIVERSITIES - WE HAVE THEM HERE AMONG OUR ARTISTS IN AOSDANA - COMBATANTS FOR THE CNUS - "A BUNCH OF NUTS" AS MICHAEL HARTNET OBSERVED.
APRIL 10, 2007 202/376-7700

ENDING CAMPUS ANTI-SEMITISM PUBLIC EDUCATION WEB SITE TO BE LAUNCHED

BY U.S. COMMISSION ON CIVIL RIGHTS

WASHINGTON, DC - On Friday, April 13, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights will launch a Web site that contributes to ending campus anti-Semitism by educating college students and others about anti-Semitism, urging victims and witnesses of anti-Semitism to report such incidents, and listing sources of assistance for students. This Web site is part of a campaign that the Commission undertook following the occurrence of anti-Semitic incidents on many of the nation's university and college campuses and receiving testimony from a panel of experts that too many college students are unaware of their rights and protections against anti-Semitic behavior. Campaign materials include the Commission's recent report Campus Anti-Semitism http://www.usccr.gov/pubs/081506campusantibrief07.pdf), and posters, postcards, and e-messages that will direct students to the Web site.

When: Friday, April 13, 2007, 9:30 a.m. Where: U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 624 Ninth Street NW, Room 540 Washington, D.C.

"Muzzlewatch "is a project of Jewish Voice for Peace.
It tracks efforts to stifle open debate on the Israel/Palestine conflict,
and about US - Israel foreign policy.
Racheli.


All eyes on DePaul University: Norman Finkelstein and tenure battle
Posted by Cecilie Surasky under Educational Institutions
 

The tenure battle over The Holocaust Industry author Norman Finkelstein isn’t the only Israel-Palestine free speech controversy at DePaul in recent years.

In 2005, adjunct Professor Thomas Klocek sued DePaul for defamation and breech of contract after they suspended him following a heated argument with pro-Palestinian students. At the time, critics considered the case an example of the shutting down of free speech, in this case, of an advocate of Israel. The University said he was guilty of “threatening and unprofessional behavior.” Part of Klocek’s suit for breech of contract was dismissed, the rest is still pending.

Now, the Chronicle of Higher Education says reports are circulating that DePaul will deny Norman Finkelstein tenure despite the fact that “his department had voted 9-to-3 in his favor and that the College Personnel Committee had unanimously recommended tenure.”

Mr. Finkelstein, an assistant professor of political science, told The Chronicle in an e-mail message that he had been the target of “external intrusion in the tenure process — including a relentless campaign of character assassination directed at the faculty and administration” by his critics. [newprofile message1092] All eyes on DePaul University Norman FInkelstein and tenure battle Muzzlewatch

04.05.2007 | The Chronicle of Higher Education
By JENNIFER HOWARD

The highly public feud between Norman G. Finkelstein of DePaul University and Harvard Law School's Alan M. Dershowitz has taken an unusual procedural twist, with Mr. Dershowitz attempting to weigh in on Mr. Finkelstein's bid for tenure at DePaul.

How Mr. Dershowitz's move will play out remains to be seen. Mr. Finkelstein's department supported his tenure bid, but the dean of his college has refused to support him. A final decision is expected next month.

There's no love lost between Mr. Finkelstein, an assistant professor of political science, and Mr. Dershowitz, a law professor. The two scholars have attacked each other repeatedly in the past few years, hurling accusations of plagiarism and polemicism at one another.

They've taken adversarial stances on such issues as the Israel lobby, anti-Semitism, and what Mr. Finkelstein terms "the Holocaust industry." Mr. Dershowitz threatened to take legal action against the University of California Press if Mr. Finkelstein's Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History (2005) went to print with allegations that Mr. Dershowitz plagiarized portions of his 2003 book The Case for Israel (The Chronicle, July 22, 2005).

Last fall, with Mr. Finkelstein up for tenure, Mr. Dershowitz sent the DePaul law school faculty and members of the political-science department what he described, in a letter dated October 3, as a
"dossier of Norman Finkelstein's most egregious academic sins, and especially his outright lies, misquotations, and distortions."

"I hope that this will serve as an introduction and primer to the so-called scholarship that Finkelstein will present this term as he is considered for tenure," Mr. Dershowitz wrote.

Mr. Finkelstein said in an interview on Monday that Mr. Dershowitz had embarked on "this frenetic and relentless campaign to deny me tenure."

"He sent to every member of the law school ... a dossier which came, I think, to about 50 pages, leveling or, I should say, recycling all of the allegations he's been putting forth for the past couple of years. And he sent a copy of that dossier to every member of my department."

The packet included what Mr. Dershowitz's letter called "some of the lies I am absolutely confident that Finkelstein told" on such points as Israeli torture and whether or not Mr. Dershowitz writes his own books.

In a telephone interview on Wednesday with The Chronicle, Mr. Dershowitz confirmed that he had sent the information to "everybody who would read it." He said he had compiled the material at the request of some two dozen DePaul students, alumni, and faculty members who were alarmed at the prospect of Mr. Finkelstein's receiving tenure.

Asked what he hoped to accomplish, he said, "Revealing the truth -- all I'm doing is disclosing the truth."

Mr. Dershowitz continued, "It would be a disgrace to DePaul University if they were to grant tenure. It would make them the laughing stock of American universities. ... His scholarship is no more than ad hominem attacks on his ideological enemies." He added, "I think, by every standard, he's worse than Ward Churchill. ... He's a propagandist, not a scholar."

Given Mr. Dershowitz's history of clashes with Mr. Finkelstein, some might conclude that the matter had by now become more personal than professional. Mr. Dershowitz denied that. "For me, it's not personal. It's institutional." He said that Mr. Finkelstein sent "a message to other pro-Israel writers: If you dare write anything scholarly in favor of Israel, I will call you names, I will call you a plagiarist."

Mr. Dershowitz's involvement has stirred serious concern among the DePaul faculty. Gil Gott, a professor of international studies at DePaul who is chairman of its Liberal Arts and Sciences' Faculty Governance Council, said in an e-mail message on Wednesday that the council had taken up the matter at its November 17, 2006, meeting. (Mr. Gott was not then chair of the council.)

According to the minutes of the session, the council voted unanimously to authorize a letter to DePaul's president, Dennis H. Holtschneider, and the university's provost, Helmut P. Epp, along with the president of Harvard University and the dean of Harvard Law school. The letter was to express "the council's dismay at Professor Dershowitz's interference in Finkelstein's tenure and promotion case" and also to explain "that the sanctity of the tenure and promotion process is
violated by Professor Dershowitz's emails." The minutes add: "A discussion followed in which members expressed their views that this was a very disturbing intrusion which attacked the sovereignty of an academic institution to govern its own affairs."

Asked whether it was unusual for a scholar to weigh in on tenure deliberations at another university, Mr. Dershowitz responded, "What's so unusual about a concerned academic's objecting to his receiving tenure? He would be the first person in history ever to receive tenure based on no scholarship other than personal attacks."

Mr. Finkelstein contacted The Chronicle last weekend to discuss his concerns about the status of his case. He said that his department had investigated Mr. Dershowitz's claims and "concluded that none of the scholarly allegations that Dershowitz leveled against me had any merit." But he added: "DePaul is in a growth mode, and they see me as an albatross because they're getting all this negative publicity because of me. And they want to get rid of me. And now the question is, what's
going to prevail? The principles of fairness, the principles of academic freedom, or power and money in the form of a mailed fist?"

According to Mr. Finkelstein and to departmental reports sent to The Chronicle, his department voted 9 to 3 in favor of granting him tenure, with the majority voicing strong support for his scholarship and giving him high marks for his pedagogy. One of the reports described him as
"an outstanding teacher whose contributions to student learning and transformation are impressive." It concluded that "while not all members of the department share a love of polemic and inflammatory rhetoric as practiced by Norman and his adversaries, there is clearly a substantial and serious record of scholarly production and achievement."

The College Personnel Committee subsequently voted 5 to 0 in favor of tenure for Mr. Finkelstein. But Charles S. Suchar, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, shot down the recommendation in a March 22, 2007, memo, a copy of which was also obtained by The Chronicle. In language similar to that used by Mr. Dershowitz, the dean wrote, "I find the personal attacks in many of Dr. Finkelstein's published books to border on character assassination and, in my opinion, they embody a strategy clearly aimed at destroying the reputation of many who oppose
his views."

Because the process is not yet complete, the DePaul administration has not made a public statement about Mr. Finkelstein's case. "No comment at this time," Mr. Suchar wrote in an e-mail message. "The promotion and tenure review process is still under way, and final decisions are not expected until mid- to late May." The final decision on whether Mr. Finkelstein receives tenure rests with the provost and president of the university.

Also online are both Mr. Dershowitz's Web site and Mr. Finkelstein's.
[newprofile message1095]

THE OLYMPICS OF THE MIND
MEDIA CONTACT: Renee Foster, Renegade PR
Tel. 718-441-8946 Mobile 347-278-4899

New York, NY – March 28, 2007 – Some 200 enthusiastic Black high school students from throughout the New York metropolitan area will converge under one roof to showcase their talents in the humanities, arts, and sciences at the 20th annual Olympics of the Mind competition set for Saturday, April 21, 2005 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Edward R. Murrow High School, 1600 avenue L (at 17th St.) Brooklyn, NY.

The New York City chapter of the NAACP Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics (NYC ACT-SO), proud sponsor of the Olympics of the Mind, also will host the competition’s VIP Reception & Awards Ceremony to follow on Monday, April 23 at Con Edison, 4 Irving Place in Lower
Manhattan. The VIP Reception (invitation only) will be from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., and the Awards Ceremony (open to the public) will be from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. With 140 chapters nationwide, NAACP ACT-SO, one of America’s best-kept secrets, is the largest program dedicated to academic achievement of Black youth in the country.

The 2007 NAACP ACT-SO season is the 20th since its inception by founder Vernon Jarrett in 1977. Mr. Jarrett (1918-2004) was best known as a legendary award-winning journalist, civil rights activist, and co-founder of the National Association of Black Journalists Inc. NYC ACT-SO has upheld and expanded Mr. Jarrett’s legacy through its annual student enrichment and fundraising activities.

“I want NYC ACT-SO to live up to Vernon’s vision,” said NYC ACT-SO Executive Director Anton Tomlinson, who founded the NYC ACT-SO chapter in 1987 with Benjamin Duster IV, a direct descendant of justice crusader and journalist Ida B. Wells. This program is among the most effective academic programs for Black high school students in New York City. There is still time for interested New York City high school students to apply for the NYC ACT-SO

-----------------------------

Olympics of the Mind, in which participants compete in 25 categories:

Humanities – music composition, original essay, playwriting, poetry, and business/entrepreneurship; Performing Arts – dance, dramatics, music

Instrumental/ classical, music instrument/contemporary, music vocal/classical, music vocal/contemporary, and oratory; Sciences – architecture, biology, chemistry, computer science, mathematics, physics/electronics,

physics/energy and physics/general; and Visual Arts – drawing, painting, photography, sculpture, and filmmaking/video production. In honor of Vernon Jarrett, NYC ACT-SO will add a journalism category to the Humanities offerings in the next season.

The top three winners in each category receive a gold medal with $500 in cash,

Silver medal with $300 and bronze medal with $200. The gold medalists will advance (among 1,200 gold medalists from local competitions across the country) to the national NAACP ACT-SO Olympics of the Mind to be held July 5-8th in Detroit, Michigan, where prizes are a gold medal with $2,000; silver with $1,500; and bronze with $1,000. Every national medalist also receives a fully-loaded laptop computer!

More than 98 percent of NYC-ACT-SO student’s graduate from high school and 85 percent go on to college. Participants’ road to success and the Olympics of the Mind competition begins at the start of the school year with intensive enrichment workshops beginning in November. A kick-off rally is held in January, and the enrichment workshops, are conducted on Saturdays at Manhattan’s P.S. 84, 32 W. 92nd Street (between Columbus Avenue and Central Park West), and continue through April. The workshops are led by coaches who are accomplished professionals in the competition categories and help students choose and develop individual projects. NYC ACT-SO is a volunteer-driven and led organization. All coaches, mentors, judges, and others, therefore, donate their time to work with students. The chapter is seeking more judges for this season’s

Olympics of the Mind.

Since its inception, NYC ACT-SO has mentored more than 5,500 students through coaching sessions, the Olympics of the Mind, and other enrichment activities, which include field trips to Broadway plays, museums, and cultural centers; college admissions workshops; studies broad; and internships.

“The workshops help the students present their best at the Olympics of the Mind,” said Barbara Richards, chairperson of the NYC ACT-SO Workshop Committee for the past decade. “But the workshops are not just for preparing the students for competition. These sessions truly enhance their lives, fuel their dreams, and, in some cases, help discover hidden talents.”

Olympics of the Mind organizers agree the coaches are the backbone of the program. “Without the coaches, there would be no NYC ACT-SO,” Ms. Richards said. “They are the ones who elicit excellence from the students. We’ve had alumni who have returned to serve as coaches and volunteers. This is the result of the interaction that they had years before with a caring individual. It’s also a give and take – the kids learn from the coaches and the coaches learn from the students.” Presented with pageantry and excitement, the Olympics of the Mind offers young participants a singular experience and level of recognition that can greatly impact their lives long after their high school years.

Just ask some of today’s highly-accomplished NYC ACT-SO alumni, who have gone on to become everything from doctors to museum curators to world-renowned musicians! “ACT-SO helped me to excel, and that made all the difference in my career, and more importantly, my life,” said NYC ACT-SO alumnus and saxophonist sensation Mike Phillips, who won a silver medal in the music instrumental/contemporary category. Since graduation, he has toured with Stevie Wonder, given a command performance for Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg, South Africa, and toured with Prince’s 2004 Musicology Tour. Fall 2007 he was a featured performer on the BMW eight city tour of Young Jazz Musicians. Mr. Phillips is signed to Hidden Beach Recordings and he has released several albums since. He also is the first non-athlete to secure an endorsement contract with Nike.

“Even if you don’t win a medal in ACT-SO, you get to determine how far you go afterwards,” Mr. Phillips said to a captivated audience of young hopefuls at the NYC ACT-SO Kick-Off Rally. “I got to this level through hard work. Identify your calling or your gift, but know that it’s not free. You have to cultivate it. You control your destiny. So don’t just play ‘not to lose.’ Play to win.” History is moving forward at NYC ACT-SO, just as Vernon Jarrett first intended. New York City, America, and the world are taking notice!

“We have great respect for your organization and great respect for you,” said New York City Council Member Gale Brewer, who encouraged students at the Kick-Off Rally to shine. “I support you wholeheartedly.” For more information about NYC ACT-SO, the Olympics of the Mind, Awards Ceremony tickets, or becoming a student competitor or a volunteer judge, the general public can call NYC ACT-SO at 212-666-9348, or 212-666-7212. Or visit www.myspace.com/nyactso [TheBlackList] Black Olympics of the Mind setg for 21 April in Brooklyn

Killers in the Classroom

By Dr. June Scorza Terpstra

02/15/07 "ICH " -- -- During a heated debate in a class I teach on social justice, several US Marines who had done tours in Iraq told me that they had "sacrificed" by “serving” in Iraq so that I could enjoy the freedom to teach in the USA. Parroting their master’s slogan about “fighting over there so we don’t have to fight over here”, these students proudly proclaimed that they terrorized and killed defenseless Iraqis. They intimated that their Arab victims are nothing more to them than collateral damage, incidental to their receipt of some money and an education.

A room full of students listened as a US Marine told of the invasion of Baghdad and Falluja and how he killed innocent Iraqis at a check point. He called them “collateral damage” and said he had followed the “rules”. A Muslim-American student in front of him said “I could slap you but then you would kill me”. A young female Muslim student gasped “I am a freshman; I never thought to hear of this in a class. I feel sick, like I will pass out.”

I knew in that moment that this was what the future of teaching about justice would include: teaching war criminals who sit glaring at me with hatred for daring to speak the truth of their atrocities and who, if paid to, would disappear, torture and kill me. I wondered that night how long I really have in this so called “free” country to teach my students and to be with my children and grandchildren.

The American military and mercenary soldiers who “sacrificed” their lives did not do so for the teacher’s freedom to teach the truth about the so-called war on terror, or any of US history for that matter. They sacrificed their lives, limbs and sanity for money, some education and the thrills of the violence for which they are socially bred. Sacrificing for the “bling and booty” in Iraq or Afghanistan, The Philippines, Grenada, Central America, Mexico, Somalia, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, or any of the other numerous wars and invasions spanning US history as an entity and beginning with their foundational practice of killing the Indians and stealing their land.

Many of the classes that I teach now include students who “served” in the US military and security corporations. There are also many students who intend to join the US military upon completion of a degree because with the degree they get a bigger “sign on” bonus of ten to fifty thousand dollars. Their position is supported by many of the student body, who, vegetating according to the American Plan, believe they should “support their troops”. The excuses that they give for joining or intending to join the US military terrorist training camps are first and foremost motivated by a desire for money. One student proudly said that he is willing to kill for money, a better standard of living and an education. Another student, who had done two tours of duty to the Empire in Iraq, justified killing and torture, citing the importance of staying on top as the world’s number one super power so that his family could have the highest standard of living and unlimited access to the world’s oil supplies.

Yet another soldier-student said that there would always be wars and someone had to do it. The”it” is killing, rape, and plunder for profit. Some of the soldier-students agreed that military terrorism was thrilling. Stopping and killing people at checkpoints in order to maintain a comfortable lifestyle in the USA was worth the risk of being killed or maimed. Little did they know that the very education they would kill for could include a course on social justice in which they would be compelled to examine their motives, beliefs and actions in an evil, illegal, immoral and unjust invasion and occupation of a people who never hurt or harmed them or any of their fellow citizens.

To be fair, in this week’s discussion in class there was some mention that some of the student’s intentions had been honorable at the time that they joined the military. They wanted to “help other people”. A few woman students who want to join the military commented that they would be working to “free and defend” people here and abroad. However, for the most part and by their own admission, personal financial gain was their main focus in signing on. Their bottom line was getting the money and their thrills by joining and belonging to the biggest terrorist organization in the world, the USA.

What appears to trouble the soldier student is that the rhetoric of fighting for freedom and democracy is a lie that cannot blanket the horror and guilt of their terrorism. They do not want to hear that participation in invasion and occupation, murder and pillaging, is logically inconsistent with any legitimate concept of freedom or liberation. They know the greed and programmed lust for violence that motivates them. They expect that if they can make it out alive, they get some money, a comfortable lifestyle and an education. Their plan is to secure the oil, the diamonds, the gold, the water, the guns, the drugs, and the bling for their masters, who they hope will cut them in on the swag. They say that someone has to be on top and they want to be on the side of the strong, not the weak. Robbing Hoods, not Robin Hoods.

And now, here they sit in my course on social justice, terrorist war criminals, wanting high paying “criminal justice” jobs in a university Justice Studies program. They want approval, appreciation and honors for terrorism, torture, and murder. They want a university degree so they can get an even higher salary terrorizing more people around the world with security companies such as Blackwater or Halliburton. They want that appropriately named “sheepskin” so they can join the CIA, FBI, and other police and track down and terrorize US residents here.

These military and mercenary terrorist-students are trained in terrorist training camps all under the USA, funded by American taxpayers. In fact, people under the USA are “sacrificing” their health care and their children’s educations while donating their tax dollars to these terrorist training camps. These terrorist camps train money hungry working class stiffs to murder, steal and plunder for the power hungry US corporate war lords.

There is a saying that “if you do the crime, you do the time”. My response is that “If you do the war crimes, you will do time in hell, whether the hell of war trauma and shock, of diseases such as those caused by depleted uranium, the old-fashioned traditional hell, fire and brimstone assigned to malefactors…or the hell of sitting in a social justice class and discovering what the hell you are in hell for, or are about to be.

Please visit Dr Terpstras' website www.juneterpstra.com

Moyhabin said...

Israel suffers the same way Nazi Germany suffered: as a result of its own criminal actions. If Israel hadn´t been created under false pretense, religious fanaticism and ethnocentric bigotry, and hadn´t in the process destroyed an entire nation, it wouldn´t suffer. Any other perspective on this issue is immoral. Fee speech should allow anyone to make this point. If a US University encroaches on this right, it means it´s really not a true educational institution founded upon elevated human ideals. Thus, if impeded by University authorities to freely present your views on the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, you should then organize a room on this issue: lack of true freedon of speech at your University. ............................

SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY APPLIES SOME THOUGHT TO FREEDOM OF THOUGHT FOR UNIVERSITY EDUCATION
San Jose State University,California, is censoring the truth about Occupation of Palestine and Students for Change at SJSU needs your help!

San Jose State University is censoring the Tunnel of Oppression and Students for Change needs your help!

We were selected, by application, to construct a room themed Occupation Palestine at this year's Tunnel of Oppression. After complaints from Zionists on campus, we have been told that unless we compromise our room we cannot participate. We are not being allowed to present the Israeli occupation from a Palestinian perspective unless we present how Israel suffers as well. Our argument is that this room focuses on the oppression that is occurring within the occupied Palestinian territories but the university maintains that this is going to make Israeli/Jewish students feel persecuted. I further argue that, when dealing with oppression, you are always going to have someone who says there is "another side" and if this were to stop this room, it should then stop the entire event. I am asking that you contact the university and tell them you support the room Occupation Palestine AS IT IS and that any attempt to prevent this room from proceding as planned should be deemed CENSORSHIP. Please contact Debra Griffith, the Director of Student Conduct & Ethical Development at Debra.Griffith [at] sjsu.edu

I am meeting with Debra Griffith Wednesday morning, April 21st at 9:30am. She is the person who is responsible for the event, she is not the person who filed the complaint. If you are going to send an email please send it by Tuesday evening.

Thanks!
Sarah Morris

and please share your thoughts/suggestions with me as well studentsforchange [at] sbcglobal.net
http://www.myspace.com/studentsforchange

Hello Jocelyn,   Here is what is going on, in December our group -Students for Change at San Jose State University- applied, and were accepted, to participate in the Tunnel of Oppression with a room themed "Occupation Palestine".  The organizer of the event knew what we were doing, I was meeting with her weekly to discuss our plans.  Last week, she sent out an email to faculty and advisors at the university telling them about this years tunnel of oppression and as soon as certain students and faculty members heard about it they began to email her telling her they were concerned, disgusted, etc.. that the suffering in Palistine is because of terroism and not due to Israeli policy.  I then has to meet with assosciates the the assistant vie president of student affairs and explain to them the objective of the room..this was yesterday. When I did that, they told me that I cannot only portray how the Palestinians are suffering under the Israeli occupation because it would make certain students on campus feel persecuted or accused of being oppressors. In effect, if we are unwilling to change our room by including how the Israeli's are suffering, they said there is a good chance we will not be allowed to participate.  I feel that we are being censored by being unable to tell the story of the Palestinians and the suffering the endure under the occupation.   Thank you, Sarah Morris

Jocelyn Braddell <Jocelynb@eircom.net> wrote: