Monday, November 25, 2002

Making a Difference I have finally recognized that I am still upset over the election.  Not the result, which I can live with, but the fact that the democrats cannot fight back effectively.  Joe McCarthy could terrorize so many Americans because no leaders would stand up and fight back against him and what he represented.   But leadership is a question for another day.  Marcia and I saw another movie this weekend—Far From Heaven.  The film made me very upset.  A brief plot summary:  the film is about life in Hartford, CT in 1958, focusing on a wife managing her family while her husband leaves her because he’s gay and finds another lover, while her friends shun her because she is attracted to her black gardener, and the gardener leaves Hartford after a racist attack on his eleven year old daughter.  The film upset me because of its two hours of unrelenting repression.  It showed the 1950’s as a time when conformity was so ingrained people lived in fear of not fitting in, when racism was rampant everywhere, North and South, and homosexuals were treated as psychological deviants, to be cured.   What disappointed me was the defeat everyone felt.  The husband who was gay found a lover, but loathed himself for doing it.  The wife who really wanted a relationship with her gardener, an educated, sensitive small business man, couldn’t bring herself to really do it, she kept retreating back into the conformity required.   Finally, the gardener, after suggesting an attempt to break out of black stereotypes and have a relationship he clearly wanted, in the end was driven out, and defeated, by racism.   I wanted to shake these people, to say make a stand.  It is possible. You have opportunities and they won’t kill you.  Giving up in the face of overwhelming pressure for conformity was what made me so upset.  There was nothing heroic about this.   Today at our church there was another discussion about speaking and acting on your own convictions—from a different perspective.  The message was that effectiveness or personal power is not the issue.  When there is hurt or injustice, the act of speaking out itself is healing, is liberating.  I feel that the movement to build a sustainable life without war and ecological disaster is not just effective, but liberating.    The more we create a climate in which people are not afraid to speak truth about injustice, the more powerful we become.    An example recently occurred at U. Mass. The FBI interviewed M.J. Alhabeeb, an American citizen who was a professor at U Mass Amherst.  He is an Islamic art scholar.  Someone wanting to get even with him for an unrelated dispute told the FBI they should interview him because of his anti-American sentiments.  The account is in the Boston Globe today.   Stupidly, the University went along, and even sent a campus policeman to assist in the interview.  In response, dozens of U-Mass professors have demanded that the FBI interview them because of their opposition to U.S. policy as well.  The uproar has uncovered more evidence of FBI interrogations of people in the area.  A Sri Lankan married to an American was interrogated because he called the State emergency management office to ask if they provided disaster training.  Turns out he and his wife were going overseas to work with refugees.   The U-Mass faculty is now demanding an investigation, and by going public, they may reveal the extent to which FBI counter-terrorism units have been targeting non-U.S. born citizens simply because of their political views.  Exposing this will help make it more difficult for the FBI to isolate people.  The faculty are demanding that no interviews be conducted without a third party present.   Professor Alhabeeb was born in Iraq.  Speaking of his FBI interview, he said ''Every Iraqi has this fear.  For Americans, it's hard to comprehend.''   He was forced to defend his patriotism by telling the FBI about how his brother had been executed in Iraq.  How ironic that instead of making him feel safe here, they rekindled the old fear.   12:08:08 AM   comment []

© Copyright 2002 Toby Sackton. Last update: 12/26/2002; 9:31:32 PM.