Blogs
Cultural Preservation as a means of neutralizing extremist terrorists
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 06/11/2007 - 10:03Late last night, as I was driving home from DemocracyFest, I tuned in the local public radio station to hear a program from the World Affairs Forum about the results of the Iraq Study Group. I was very tired and concentrated on driving, so I didn’t follow the show as closely as I would have liked, especially since it was getting into some very interesting ideas.
A starting point of the session was whether or not the idea of a ‘Global War on Terror’ was a useful framework for thinking about our response to 9/11. If not, what would be a better framework and if so, what strategies would be best for waging such a war.
The first speaker did a very good job of explaining why thinking about our response to terrorism as a ‘global war on terror’ is detrimental. First, it places the issue into the context of militarization. It causes us to think of the solutions as military solutions while missing other solutions that might be more productive. In addition, it confuses the issue by leading many to think of ‘the enemy’ in terms of Arabs or Muslims as opposed to the extremists that make up a very small percentage of these populations.
It feeds into the narratives of the extremists by promoting a framework of a holy war. The speaker asked how our approach to extremists and terrorists could be framed in a more productive manner.
The second speaker brought up even more interesting ideas. He contrasted the idea of nations and states. He suggested that a nation is a group of people with a common identity, traditions or language. He spoke of states as locations having internationally recognized boundaries and governments. He then went on to speak about the problem of when nations and states do not coincide. As an example, he spoke about the situation with the Kurds, which he referred to as the largest stateless nation in the Middle East.
Yet the idea that really grabbed my attention was that of identity markers. The term was not defined, so I’m not sure if I fully grasp the concept. The speaker spoke about how identity markers are regularly destroyed in times of conflict.
From my brief reading on identity markers, it seems as if some of them are physical; monuments, places of historical importance, or even symbols of the marketplace. Others are linguistic, indications of a shared identity through languages, accents, and other linguistic identifiers. Some may be rituals.
How much of the conflict that we see in the world is a result of people fighting to hold on to their identity markers? In a world of globalization, American cultural markers are showing up everywhere. U.S. pop songs, golden arches show up everywhere. Is it any wonder people seeking to maintain their own cultural identity would feel threatened? Even in our own country, we find different groups finding their cultures threatened and fighting ‘culture wars’. In so many other conflicts around the world, one side actively seeks to destroy the cultural artifacts of their opposition.
So, how can we reframe the ‘Global War on Terror’ to something more productive? Well, perhaps a starting point is instead of trying to export American style democracy, business, and media, we would be better off trying to export an idea that has truly made our country great, America as a melting pot.
Perhaps, instead of vilifying Arabs and Muslims, we should honor their cultures. We could lead by example in seeking and promoting the beauty of Shia, Sunni and Kurdish cultures. By recognizing and promoting the great contributions that moderate Muslims have contributed to our world, we will help neutralize extremists, making it harder for them to organize, recruit and carry out terrorist actions.
As individuals, it may be harder for us to do this, but we can still lead by example. We should all seek out chances to experience, appreciate and honor cultures different from our own in our daily lives. Is there a culture center near you that you haven’t visited yet? Go, visit, and learn about other cultures. Even driving past the local golden arches and having lunch at a local ethnic restaurant is a start.
So, let’s change the global war on terror to a quest to appreciate global cultures.
DemocracyFest Other Presidential candidates
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 06/10/2007 - 16:27Yesterday evening, Granny D delivered an incredible talk linking the immigration issue to NAFTA. She spoke about the amount of corn being imported into Mexico and effect it had on their economy. She then introduced Mike Gravel.
Mike started talking about the war. He said congress should pass a law requiring the President and Vice President to certify that all troops are out of Iraq by December 31st. Failure to do so would be a felony punishable by a minimum of five years in prison. He said that congress should keep voting on it everyday until it passes and then after it is vetoed, until the veto is overridden.
He also spoke about the need to provide for national initiatives. At this point he opened things up to questions. The questions and the answers were all over the place. There was a discussion about ending the prohibition on marihuana. He tied this to a discussion about his sister who is a nun in Manchester who spends time visiting people in jail.
He was asked about what he would do about AIDS which led his thoughts on health care reform, which led to him talking about tax reform. He is arguing for a sales tax instead of corporate taxes. “We need to become a nation of savers”.
He said a lot of good things, but he said a lot of weird things as well, and generally, his comments were all over the place.
After this, William McNary, President of U. S. Action spoke on Sen. Obama’s behalf. It had a good Baptist revival feeling, but was a bit light on content. He spend a bit of time reading from Sen. Obama’s 2004 speech to the Democratic National Convention. It seemed to be good red meat for the Obama supporters, but didn’t really do much for me.
Today, Steve Gerencser spoke on behalf of Sen. Dodd and Karen Hicks spoke on behalf of Sen. Clinton. Unfortunately, it conflicted with Matt Dunn’s discussion about Service Politics which I really wanted to hear.
After this, Rep. Kucinich called in via cellphone from California. A Kucinich supporter held the cellphone up to the microphone for the room’s speaker system. He spoke about the war, health care, voting issues and impeachment. He presented the issues very well. We need to not only get out of Iraq, but we need to change our way of living to be more about peace. He spoke about impeachment in terms of the importance of accountability.
On the other hand, there was a lot of dog whistle, or at least shorthand politics. Bills before Congress were spoken of in terms of their bill number, and unless you were already well informed, you wouldn’t know what was being talked about. The same applied to court decisions.
Edwards, Obama, Clinton and Kucinich all had material at DemocracyFest. I have not seen any sign of Biden or Richardson.
DemocracyFest: John Edwards
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 06/10/2007 - 13:19DemocracyFest has brought together a large gathering of progressive activists in New Hampshire, and as such, draws the attention of many of the Presidential campaigns. The first to speak was Sen. Edwards. He arrived around half an hour late and delivered what I thought was a very good speech. I must admit, that I’m an Edwards supporter and am biased. Jim Dean introduced Sen. Edwards and spoke about Edwards visiting Vermont in 2005 to talk with political leaders about addressing issues of poverty. He spoke about Sen. Edwards recognizing that Washington DC is no longer the center of the universe.
Sen. Edwards picked up this theme and said, “We will never bring about the bold change we need in this country, unless we do it from the ground up.” He went on to acknowledge that we have a lot of work to do.
He started off by talking about the war. We spoke about the Democrats taking back congress as a mandate to end the war and echoed the frustration that many have about Democrats in Congress caving to President Bush. He said congress should not submit any funding bill to the president that doesn’t have a withdrawal schedule. He acknowledged voting for the war and admitted he was wrong for that.
He went on to talk about poverty and health care. He gave some details of his healthcare plan, claiming it is the only truly universal plan that any of the candidates have presented. Anyone will be able to get ‘Medicare Plus’, but people will still be able to get traditional plans if they so chose. If the Medicare Plus plan is as good as Sen. Edwards believes it will be, then most Americans will opt for it and will move us towards a true single payer plan.
He spoke about treating mental health equally with physical health, making sure that people are not denied health insurance because of pre-existing conditions and mandating electronic record keeping. The medical plan would cost between $90 and $120 billion and would be paid for by getting rid of President Bush’s tax breaks for the extremely wealthy.
He went talk briefly about energy prices. He spoke about the need America to get off our addition to oil. He spoke about the need for big changes, including that we should stop subsidizing large oil companies to the tune of $3 billion a year.
His final point was about the need for ‘College for Everyone’, and described how it is working in North Carolina.
During the questions and answers, he kept returning to the issues of poverty, “I want to say a word about this issue of poverty….It says something about the character of America…America is better than this…And we have a responsibility to do something about this… I think what has happened in New Orleans is a national embarssment…
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He spoke about the New York Times Magazine which should have a front page article about fighting poverty today. He spoke about the importance of a livable wage and the role of unions in fighting poverty in America
When asked about the push back that insurance and pharmaceutical companies are bound to give if he gets a chance to push for his healthcare reform, he said,
“Every time you see an ad on television, I want you to ask, who’s paying for this?”
That’s a good idea for whatever ads we see.
As to addressing voting issues, he said, “If you love this country, if you love democracy, don’t you want to make sure that your votes are counted?”
I was already an Edwards supporter and it didn’t change my mind. I don’t know what others where thinking, but his speech was well received.
DemocracyFest, Part 1
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 06/09/2007 - 16:05Today, I am attending DemocracyFest in Bedford, NH, just outside of Manchester. The morning started off with a breakfast where I ran into a lot of old friends. In breakfast room, the WiFi was fairly weak, so I could only get on briefly. However, this afternoon, I’ve found a room with good connectivity.
We had the standard round of opening comments, which included the reading of a proclamation by Gov. John Lynch about DemocracyFest. One of the phrases that jumped out at me was ‘Potluck Politics’, which sums up, fairly nicely what I like about Democracy for America and DemocracyFest.
We also had a rousing sing along by Jean Sara Rohe.
The first speaker was Jim Dean, talking about DFA. He made very comments like, “The highest office in this land is the office of citizen, but in order for this to work, we need to help people become more involved” and “show me someone who says their getting their information from the last two weeks of television ads in a campaign, and I’ll show you someone who isn’t voting”.
He talked about the 28,000 who registered to vote as Democrats in during the 2006 U.S. Senate primary. He then noted that Joe Courtney ended up winning by less than 100 votes. During the Q&A later on, someone asked about the 2008 Presidential Primary and Jim commented about how he thought a horserace was a good thing. It empowers and encourages voters. I think the Connecticut U.S. Senate primary was a good example of this. This was also further illustrated in a subsequent session by a couple people that had run for State Representative in New Hampshire. One of them commented about folks coming back to school in New Hampshire energized after having helped with primaries in Massachusetts or Connecticut.
Jim also told the story of Keith Crane, joining the local DTC, and getting Ed Meyer to run for State Senate. After Ed defeated the ranking Republican State Senator, he went on to be a key force in helping get campaign finance reform passed in Connecticut.
Jim talked a bit about the DFA Trainings that DFA does around the country. There was a question about whether or not these trainings were good for candidates, and Jim talked about the person who went on to become Mayor of Saratoga Springs deciding to run at a DFA training, as well as a DFA Training in Mississippi that included thirteen State Rep candidates.
There are DFA Trainings going on throughout DemocracyFest and this Jim’s comments provide a great backdrop for DemocracyFest.
The content of their character
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 06/08/2007 - 14:41Last night, I went to the 8th Grade dinner at King Low Heywood Thomas School in Stamford. It is a private school where my ex-wife teaches and where Miranda has been attending for the past three years. They showed pictures of the students doing the things that they enjoy which made me stop and think for a moment.
By most standards, we are fairly wealthy. You have to be fairly wealthy even to own a house in Stamford, CT, and our house is particularly nice. In large part due to Amy teaching at KLHT, we’ve managed to afford to send Miranda to a nice private school. Sure, we’ve been struggling to get by financially as I spend more time working with political campaigns and non-profit organizations. Neither of which pay the good old Wall Street salaries that I got for so long.
Yet last night, as I looked at all the activities of these kids; ski trips out west, sailing, scuba diving, horseback riding and so on, I saw a lifestyle very different from my own. Sure, we’ve done a little bit of this over the past several years, but not on the scale or with the style shown in these pictures. I felt a little remorseful, a little regretful that I couldn’t provide all the opportunities to my kids that many of these kids have had.
Yet I’m also proud of what they have done. Miranda won the eight-grade class prize at KLHT. In announcing the award, Mr. Lewis said, "She understands it is alright to be different whether in dress or philosophy and as such she is very accepting to those around here. Her message of inclusivity is inspiring. This thoughtful dedication to classmates, teammates, KLHT and the greater community is exceptional.”
This message of inclusivity is in stark contrast to what we see so much of in politics today. The poor don’t trust the rich. The rich don’t trust the poor. Journalists question whether a candidate that has a nice haircut or a large house can care for the poor. I got into a discussion about that at a dinner the other day, and I asserted that those who repeat suggestions that reach people cannot care for poor people are doing our country a grave disservice.
The children at KLHT, many of whom come from much more fortunate families than mine understand that. They have been exemplars in community service. They have written letters to soldiers in Iraq. They have explored what they can do to help address the atrocities in Darfur.
If anything, they understand that the status symbols that matter are not what you wear or what your hair looks like but the content of their character. We can learn a lot from these wonderful kids.
