[NIFL-POVRACELIT:590] response to Tuesday's attacks

From: Eileen Eckert (eileeneckert@hotmail.com)
Date: Fri Sep 14 2001 - 09:58:14 EDT


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From: "Eileen Eckert" <eileeneckert@hotmail.com>
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Subject: [NIFL-POVRACELIT:590] response to Tuesday's attacks
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The early postings to this list were a mix of earnest discussion, 
provocation, and occasional proseltyzing--tense, sometimes irritating, but 
usually generating reflection. I have been disappointed with the devolution 
of the list into a forum for announcements as critical discussion has 
disappeared, but I am profoundly disgusted with the jingoistic postings in 
response to the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon and the crash 
in Pennsylvania. These events, the likely retaliation, and the backlash 
against Arabs and Muslims (and anyone who appears to be Arab or Muslim), 
highlight the need to think critically and discuss openly the issues of 
racism and injustice, poverty and illiteracy, and our roles individually and 
as a nation in both perpetuating and responding to them locally and 
globally.

If our own response is a simplistic flag-waving, how can we expect critical 
thinking from our students? If we cannot discuss both the attacks and the 
reasons we are hated by significant numbers of people around the world, how 
can we hope for anything but a spiraling escalation of mindless violence in 
response?

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