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January
22, 2002
Kevin
Alexander Gray
The
Crisis in Black Leadership
January
21, 2002
Marjorie
Cohn
Will
Walker's Words
Be Used Against Him?
Ahmad
Faruqui
MLK
Jr. and the Palestinians
January
19. 2002
Jordan
Green
Enron
Stole Our Future
January
18, 2002
Tom Turnipseed
The
Enron Model
Walt Brasch
Enron
at the White House
CounterPunch
Wire
Human
Rights Groups Says Guantanamo Prisoners Must
Be Treated as POWs
January
17, 2002
Gideon
Levy
Bulldozing
Rafah
Uri Avnery
That
Weapons Shipment
January
16, 2002
John Chuckman
The
Angel and the Pretzel
Lawrence
McGuire
Subverting
the
Geneva Convention
Kathy
Kelly
An
Open Letter to
Richard Perle on Iraq
January
15, 2002
George
Monbiot
Greenpeace,
Lord Melchett
and the Business of Betrayal
Jack McCarthy
Follow
the Pretzel
William
Blum
Atta
and the Times:
Follow the Changing Story
Edward
Said
Emerging
Alternatives
in Palestine
January
14, 2002
David
Vest
Open
Bag. Eat Pretzels.
Patrick
Cockburn
Collapse
of Georgia
Ignored by the World
Mokhiber/Weissman
Enron's
Accountants:
When In Doubt, Shred It
January
13, 2002
C.G. Estabrook
Why
We Kill People
January
12, 2002
Cockburn/St.
Clair
Forbidden
Truths
January
11, 2002
Lee Balllinger/Dave
Marsh
Neil
Young's Duet with Ashcroft
January
10, 2002
Tom Turnipseed
Bush,
Enron, UNOCAL
and the Taliban
St. Clair/Cockburn
Greenpeace
to Greenwash?
Hans von
Sponek
Iraq:
Is There an Alternative
to Military Action?
Jim Lobe
Israeli
Human Rights Group Assails Army
Marina Mayakova
Russia's
Top Military Astrologer Predicts More Attacks from OBL
January
9, 2002
David
Vest
The
Super-Burqa
and the Big Tent
ND Jayaprakash
Winnable
Nuclear War?
Rafiq
Kathwari
Kashmir
Will Make Ground Zero Look Like a Bonfire
January
8, 2002
Prudence
Crowther
Sting
Like a B-52
Nelson
Valdés
Al-Qaeda
at Guantanamo Bay
John Chuckman
Dark
Tales from the
Ministry of Truth
Richard
Corn-Revere
Do
We Fear Freedom?
Joan Hoff
The
Nixon You Haven't Heard
January
7, 2002
Lawrence
McGuire
Confusing
Economic Tales About Argentina
Wael Masri
They
Are Taking
Our Rights Away
Philip
Farruggio
Better
Medicine
A Photographic Journal of Life
in an Afghan Refugee Camp
By Judith Mann
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
(Click Here to Order from CounterPunch
Online at 20% Off Amazon.com's price!)
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TO
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Published Oct. 15, 2001
8-Page Special Issue
War Diary
CIA's Assassination Plan a History of
Torture in US Prisons
bin Laden and Bush
Business Connections
Aisha Ikramuddin on the Hidden Hype
of US Food Bombs
Peter Linebaugh on
Pakistan
Christopher Hitchens' Love for Mrs. Thatcher
Jiang Zemin Tells Bush:
Nuke 'Em
Search
CounterPunch
Read Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
Photos by Ernest Withers
Text by Daniel Wolff
The New Intifada:
Resisting Israel's Apartheid
Edited by Roane Carey
A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
by James Ridgeway
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The
Phoenix Program
by Douglas Valentine
Al Gore:
A User's Manual
by Cockburn
and St. Clair
Buy
This Explosive
New Book at an
Amazing Discount!
Reviews of Gore:
a User's Manual
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January
22, 2002
Speak Out, Get
Smeared
No Regrets
By Robert Jensen
There are about 2,700 faculty members at the University
of Texas at Austin, the largest campus in the United States.
It's easy to get lost in the crowd here.
But this fall, UT President Larry Faulkner
made me feel special.
In September Faulkner took time from
a president's busy schedule to comment on my writing in the pages
of the state's largest newspaper. True, he called me "misguided"
and described my work as "a fountain of undiluted foolishness."
But at least he cared enough to write.
Faulkner's insults were hardly the nastiest
comments I received this fall after writing and speaking against
the United States' so-called war on terrorism. Beginning with
the reaction to an op-ed that was published in the Houston Chronicle
on Sept. 14, ("U.S. just as guilty of committing own violent
acts," Outlook) I received more than 4,000 messages and
phone calls over the next three months, many from folks who thought
I should be fired and/or run out of the country for my critique
of U.S. policy. Several men left me messages suggesting they
would like to take a swing at me, though I doubted that anyone
would really take the time to drive all the way from Houston
just to bloody my nose. Some had a sense of humor; my favorite
was a song written to the tune of Camp Grenada that began, "Robert
Jensen, scum professor ... "
Friends and colleagues expressed concern
about my well-being during those months, which I appreciated
but found somewhat puzzling. I write and speak in public because
I want to put forward political ideas I strongly believe in.
When people respond, shouldn't I be grateful? When I know I am
putting forward a minority point of view with which many will
disagree, shouldn't I expect some of the responses to be critical,
even hostile?
I was fortunate that the hostility toward
me stayed within reasonably civil boundaries, which hasn't been
the case for all faculty members, most notably the Palestinian
computer science professor at the University of South Florida
who was fired last month for his political views. It's likely
that not only my tenured status -- I can't be fired without cause,
protection that few people in this economy have -- but my white
skin helped protect me.
What I did find disturbing about the
public dialogue after Sept. 11 was not the way in which members
of the public sometimes attacked me, but the way in which members
of my intellectual community mostly refused to engage these crucial
issues about terrorism, the war and U.S. foreign policy.
Let's start with Faulkner's response.
I didn't take it personally that my boss didn't like my ideas.
My concern about his broadside was the possible chilling effect
it would have on others, especially untenured professors and
students. I also regretted that he didn't move beyond an ad hominem
attack to explain what substantive disagreements he had with
my position. As far as I know, he has yet to do that in a public
forum, though I know of one case in which he apparently turned
down the chance to engage me directly.
In early October a producer at National
Public Radio's Talk of the Nation show called to book me on a
program about antiwar dissent. When she called back to ask if
I would be willing to go on at the same time as Faulkner, I quickly
agreed. She called back a third time to report that the UT president
was going to appear on the show but had declined to go on the
air with me live.
It turns out that Faulkner's reticence
was not idiosyncratic. Later in the fall a student organizing
a debate on civil liberties issues related to the war enlisted
me to be a speaker. About a week before the scheduled event,
the student told me she was going to cancel the forum, explaining
that she couldn't find a professor to speak in favor of the Bush
administration's civil liberties policies or the anti-terrorism
legislation.
I was incredulous, saying I could think
of several professors on campus whom I was fairly certain were
supportive. She told me that, indeed, she had identified such
professors and talked to them, but none would participate in
a public debate on the issues.
Another person planning a community forum
told me that a well-known professor who was invited to speak
at the event had said that he would not sit on a platform with
me or anyone who held positions like mine. A producer who booked
me for a Canadian Broadcasting Co. radio program reported that
several American professors she approached to debate the history
of the United States' use of violence against civilians turned
her down; she was ready to cancel the segment when at the last
minute she found a "scholar" from a right-wing think
tank to appear.
The producer's difficulty was not due
to a shortage of conservative or pro-administration professors
in the United States. The idea that campuses are dominated by
left-wing radicals is laughable; the country's major universities
are predominantly centrist to right-leaning institutions, and
UT is no different.
Given that many professors routinely
speak in public and on mass media -- indeed, many actively seek
the exposure for their views, myself included -- why in these
situations would so many turn down the opportunity?
A majority of the American public supported
a military response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, and
that support continued after President Bush took us to war. But
there also were many people like me who raised questions about
the history of U.S. aggression, argued for the exploration of
solutions to the problem of terrorism that would avoid war and
more civilian deaths, and suggested that some of the Bush administration's
war aims had more to do with extending U.S. domination over the
Middle East and Central Asia than about ensuring the safety of
U.S. citizens.
Though many disagree with these positions,
they are perfectly plausible arguments, held widely in the United
States and even more widely outside the country. Any serious
public discussion about policy options has to engage such questions.
When I was able to raise those issues, especially in public talks
where I had enough time to offer evidence and explanation, even
many supporters of the war conceded that some of the antiwar
movement's critiques were not so easy to answer.
Perhaps it isn't so difficult to understand
why professors who hold a position that has the support of the
majority of the people might be reluctant to debate. When such
a debate likely would raise difficult questions about that position,
why bother when you are already on top? It is easy to speak in
public when one is parroting the conventional wisdom without
challenge. But I would argue that faculty members at a public
university have an obligation to go beyond such safe endeavors.
One of the common complaints about professors
is that they so rarely come out of the "ivory tower"
to be part of the wider world. One of the common complaints by
professors is that the people don't appreciate their scholarship
and expertise.
This fall I found out that some people
would prefer that faculty members venture outside that tower
only when they offer opinions that don't challenge the prejudices
of the majority. And I learned that some of my colleagues prefer
venues in which their opinions are not subject to challenge.
I am no worse for the wear after the
events of this fall. Down the road, I hope we can look back and
say the same thing for our intellectual and political culture,
for the ideals of higher education and democracy.
Robert Jensen
is a professor in the School of Journalism at the University
of Texas at Austin and author of Writing Dissent: Taking Radical
Ideas from the Margins to the Mainstream. He can be reached at
rjensen@uts.cc.utexas.edu
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