New Quaker Notebook

Occasionally a kaleidoscope, if turned just right, produces a discernible picture, a gestalt, from the several disparate images. In the Chronicle of Higher Education today are two articles, almost side by side, which seem totally unrelated. In the one, Ward Churchill is at the University of Hawaii-Manoa on Tuesday and he is given an exciting, genuinely friendly welcome, completely unlike what he faced at Hamilton College earlier this month.[1] After his rebuff by the college in Clinton, NY, Churchill had other speaking engagements cancelled and remains under the microscope of public scrutiny, now even facing threats of being fired from his tenured teaching position at the University of Colorado. Here in Hawaii, though, there are hundreds who wanted to attend his lecture but couldn't get into the auditorium; forced to remain outside, they chant "move it to the steps."[2] The other Chronicle story is from Belarus, where the autocratic president of this recently independent country, Aleksandr Lukashenko, is forcing universities there to promote a state ideology—by rewriting textbooks, firing professors, and punishing students. Reports the Chronicle:

"Textbooks began to be removed from libraries, and to be rewritten to support the president's policies and narrow view of history. Rectors who flattered the president were installed. Less-than-compliant professors were forced out. Potentially controversial doctoral research was cut off. Largely because it was financed by Western organizations, an independent humanities institute was shuttered. The country's foremost private university, arguably the best of its kind on former Soviet territory—and also financed by the West—was abruptly forced to close."[3]

While Lukashenko casts all of this as restoring "the best traditions of the Soviet-era education system," strangely he also declares:

'"In Belarus nothing is happening that isn't happening anywhere else, America included," he says. "I can tell you that, in America, there's also an ideology. In America there's even a very powerful ideology—they just don't call it that."'

'"I can even envy the success of the American system of bringing up citizens and patriots, how Americans instill a love of the country and of its symbols," he says. "But would you call that totalitarianism?"'[4]

And then there's the hot tongue of Ann Coulter, who spoke at the American Conservative Union's 32nd annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), the nation's largest gathering of grassroots conservative leaders and activists, on February 17.[5] From her cold lips came statements such as:

"Liberals like to scream and howl about McCarthyism, I say let's give them some. They've had intellectual terror on campus for years ... it's time for a new McCarthyism."

"In addition to racist and Nazi, how about adding traitor to the list of things that professors can't be? And yes, I realize I just proposed firing the entire Harvard faculty."

"Since they're always acting like they're oppressed ... I say let's do it, let's oppress them."

1. There's even a movement afoot at Hamilton College not to pay Churchill's speaking fee. See the Observer-Dispatch, Sunday, February 20, 2005. Among the other casualties of this was Nancy Rabinowitz, who on February 11 publicly resigned as director of Hamilton College's Kirkland Project, which had invited to the college the two controversial figures who ended up precipitating the public outcry over the choice of educators on the Clinton, NY, campus.
2. Chronicle of Higher Education, January 24, 2005.
3. Chronicle, vol 51, issue 25, p A36, February 25, 2005.
4. Chronicle, February 25.
5. The following outrageous remarks by Ann Coulter come courtesy of CampusProgress.org.

More dissent, more focus groups. The World Council of Churches (WCC) yesterday followed the US National Council of Churches (NCC) in accusing the US of violating international law in its treatment of "prisoners" held in American detention facilities at Guantanamo. The prisoners are being "held without due process and in total violation of the norms and standards of international humanitarian and human rights law," said the WCC, calling upon NCC churches to educate their American congregations about the detentions and also seeking international talks on ending the US-led military presence in Iraq.[1] Now whether the Bush administration really cares at all about what the WCC or the NCC thinks is anyone's guess. After all, this is the same president who thinks that dissenters are mere "focus groups" and does a Jekyll-and-Hyde whenever there are any protests of US policy:

Dr. Jekyll: "Democracy is a beautiful thing ... that people are allowed to express their opinion. I welcome people's right to say what they believe."

Mr. Hyde: "First of all, you know, size of protest, it's like deciding, well, I'm going to decide policy based upon a focus group. The role of a leader is to decide policy based upon the security—in this case, the security of the people."[2]

If nothing else, we can at least look forward to the submission of the United Methodists Calling for Accountable Leadership petition. It's now at 943 signatures, with only 57 more to go before the formal Letter of Complaint is sent to the United Methodist Church (UMC) leadership in a move by concerned Methodists to discipline two of their more prominent members—George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. You can get further details about the project at TheyMustRepent.com. See also my earlier blog on the UMC petition.

What attack submarine would Jesus drive? Just as I was beginning to warm up to Jimmy Carter as a Christian, as someone who could walk the walk as easily as he talks the talk (see my earlier blog on Carter), yesterday he shows up in Connecticut to help commission the USS Jimmy Carter, a $3.2 billion attack submarine. Now this is not your plain run-of-the-mill attack submarine: it's the third and last of the Seawolf-class submarines. According to its developer, General Dynamics Electric Boat, these submarines are "the fastest, quietest, most heavily armed undersea vessels in the world."[1] In remarks specially prepared for the occasion, Carter simply couldn't contain himself: "The most deeply appreciated and emotional honor I've ever had is to have this great ship bear my name," he gushed—apparently forgetting that only three years ago he was the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.[2]

I would therefore guess that Carter thinks his attack submarine will do good things around the world. He said he expects the submarine's "extraordinary capabilities" to be used "to preserve peace, to protect our country and to keep high the banner of human rights around the world."[3] With a 50-torpedo payload, eight torpedo tubes, and Tomahawk cruise missiles, this 453-foot, 12,000-ton stealthy death ship should be just the thing to accomplish that.

Jimmy Carter is now firmly in the camp of those American Christians who have come to believe that up is down, good is wrong, and peace on earth can be achieved by blowing people up. Maybe he thinks that the combining of warheads with good intentions will be something like a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich. What it makes is more like the poisoned apple the witch gave to Snow White, handing over to the innocent not sweet health but instead an evil insensibility.

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1. See General Dynamics Electric Boat for information on the Seawolf submarines. An early design document is also available for the USS Jimmy Carter [.pdf][.doc].
2. AP, News & Observer, February 19, 2005.
3. AP, News & Observer, February 19, 2005.