Monday, March 08, 2004
No Rest For The Weary Department
As long as we're handing out assignments, sort of...remember that horrible idea hatched in the fevered brains of neo-con scholars like Daniel "mad as ten hatters" Pipes, and cohorts like David "the houndog" Horowitz, ever on the trail of liberal bias, i.e., anything that can be labelled, fairly or not, liberal or left found anywhere near or on any US campus, that the US Congress needs to pass legislation to set up a watchdog committee that will survey individual scholars and departments of Middle East studies who receive federal monies, to insure diversity of opinion, i.e., the absence of opinion with which The Weekly Standard and its readers wouldn't agree.
Well, regrettably and incredibly, it's still alive and well and being considered by the US Congress.
Professor Juan Cole, of that invaluable Koufax award-winning blog, Informed Comment, has asked for our help to let the US Congress know that they are being observed by more citizens who don't agree with the Standard, and here you will find a comprehensive discussion by Dr. Cole of the facts and issues as well as all the contact information you could ever need to make your voice heard. The objectionable institution of an advisory board is an appendage to a funding bill necessary to keep the underfunded Middle Eastern Studies programs from withering on the vine.
And email your friends the link to Professor Cole's post and ask them to help out too. And note the frightening fact that the legislation provides these advisory boards with investigative powers.
Read Cole's post, which is long and contains links within it, carefully; he explains the most effective way to protest and why. I'd include the url in any communication, faxed or by phone, or by email, with congressional staff.
Another fact that might be helpful: Professor Cole has been such an articulate and fair-minded critic of US policy in Iraq that some readers may not know that initially, Cole did not feel entirely negative about regime change in Iraq, primarily on a human rights basis, which make his critiques of what has happened since all the more convincing; no one can accuse him of being a closed-minded ideologue. Well, of course they can, and probably will, but not with any validity.
Please answer Professor Cole's "plea." All of us have an interest in seeing that our Universities maintain their intellectual independence.
Well, regrettably and incredibly, it's still alive and well and being considered by the US Congress.
Professor Juan Cole, of that invaluable Koufax award-winning blog, Informed Comment, has asked for our help to let the US Congress know that they are being observed by more citizens who don't agree with the Standard, and here you will find a comprehensive discussion by Dr. Cole of the facts and issues as well as all the contact information you could ever need to make your voice heard. The objectionable institution of an advisory board is an appendage to a funding bill necessary to keep the underfunded Middle Eastern Studies programs from withering on the vine.
I plead with all the thousands of you who have expressed interest in this site and read it frequently, to FAX your senator, or the senate generally, expressing your conviction that this advisory committee be excised from the final bill. Repeat: The message should be that HR 3077 is OK in general, but the "Advisory Board" stinks. The contact information is below. An email is better than nothing, but the FAX is what would get the job done.
And email your friends the link to Professor Cole's post and ask them to help out too. And note the frightening fact that the legislation provides these advisory boards with investigative powers.
Read Cole's post, which is long and contains links within it, carefully; he explains the most effective way to protest and why. I'd include the url in any communication, faxed or by phone, or by email, with congressional staff.
Another fact that might be helpful: Professor Cole has been such an articulate and fair-minded critic of US policy in Iraq that some readers may not know that initially, Cole did not feel entirely negative about regime change in Iraq, primarily on a human rights basis, which make his critiques of what has happened since all the more convincing; no one can accuse him of being a closed-minded ideologue. Well, of course they can, and probably will, but not with any validity.
Please answer Professor Cole's "plea." All of us have an interest in seeing that our Universities maintain their intellectual independence.
