Surely NOW they will see!
The continuing genocide in Iraq. I’ve lost track of Darfur. Jillian
asked us how we could not know about the devastion in New Orleans
before Katrina. I did know. Long ago. The news did nothing to remind
me. It worked hard to keep me from remembering. And then one night a
voice. Oddly, a woman’s voice – Laura Flanders . Some people condemn me
as reactionary for listening to her, but they were not the ones to tell
me what was to come. Nor were they the ones to tell me that the Gretna police had turned back a hundred people trying to escape NOLA on foot.
This administration has boldly said, “We’re an empire now.” That is, I
believe, a first. [Not being an empire, saying it out loud. We’re
supposed to be a democracy or at least a republic remember? Curiously,
even George F. Kennan, author of the famous ‘containment’ policy
argued that there are intrinsic limits to what it is appropriate for our form of government to do in foreign affairs.]
But it’s not enough that You know how bad things are. It matters who else knows. It matters how you tell them.
You can’t beat people up and have them say I love you. – Lenny Bruce.
- previous:
- Career Services
- next:
- Disarmament Conference in Cambridge Oct 21-23
Kyle A. Krahel
October 7, 2005 @ 3:02 am
If only a Harvard student like myself could figure out this damned blog/manila thing. I just spent an hour trying to set one up and the thing looks like HTML hell.
Anyway, I think you are a great voice at Harvard. I see you around at events and doing things that students at this school feel they are “too busy” for. I succumb to that same weakness sometimes, but we must do what we can, I guess. I hope to see more of you and work with you in the next few years.
Your knowledge of the workings of the Harvard labor system is wonderful. It is hard sometimes as a student to retrieve that information, as we are only here for four years and the sources are reluctant to offer it up. When you spoke to the Unionization Policy Group at the IOP, I think you shook the mind of some of the kids there who have not gotten a grasp on what is happening here. I am not the most well-informed, but that group of people NEED to be. They are some of the leaders of the liberal activity here and will grow up to be powerful. Today is the best day to make sure that they stay friendly.
Sorry for going on so long. I hope to keep tabs on your blog. See ya around.
Randy
October 10, 2005 @ 2:32 pm
I rarely fault someone for going on too long about me and only when it’s negative. But seriously folks, I was glad to have the opportunity to talk to your group. I couldn’t tell from the questions how I did. I have further thoughts which I’ll write down somewhere. One point that I am unclear on. I got the impression that you were focussing on new law. This strikes me as a somewhat academic approach and I may want mean that in a bad way. At the moment, Harvard spends a great deal of time and money evading existing law. I would hope that you folks would come to better understand the relationship between law/policy and underlying political/power realities. You’re not supposed to know already. For one thing you are young. For another, consider how the power flows within Harvard and influences what are encouraged and discouraged from knowing.
Sometime I will have to tell you about my experiences at the luncheons of the Weiner Center. I told Chris Jencks that I assumed he was in the business of discoraging rather than encouraging inequality. He claims he understood I was joking, but he didn’t laugh.
A teaser: I caught David Ellwood in an obvious equivocation.