Edward Said

The Best Teacher I Never Knew

Edward Said didn't know I was planning to meet him in January. He will never read the letter I started to write him two weeks ago. He will never have the chance to consider my capability as a scholar. And the loss is entirely mine.

Internationally renowned critic, writer and scholar Edward Said died early Thursday morning, Sept. 25 in New York City after a 12 year battle with leukemia. He was 67.

I am only 26, a young, undistinguished idealist in the process of applying to graduate schools to study literature. More than any single university - including his own, Columbia University - my dream was to study with Dr. Said.

In an age of isolated academics, Said advocated the role of "public intellectuals" and risked taking unpopular stands. For this, he received death threats. He was labeled a "Nazi" by the Jewish Defense League. In 1985, his office at Columbia was burned. He was highly criticized for throwing a stone over a wall at an Israeli guardhouse in 2000. And his criticism of Yassir Arafat and the P.L.O. often left him estranged from the Palestinian community, an ironic result for a 14-year member of the Palestinian parliament-in-exile, and perhaps Palestine's most respected activist.

Born in British-ruled Palestine in 1935, raised in Egypt and educated in the United States, Said leaves behind a professional body of work that reflects what he called "a cumulation of tides and currents" in his autobiography, Out of Place, the writing of which was inspired by his leukemia diagnosis.

Another book, Orientalism, published in 1978, is what put Said's name on the intellectual map. In this monumental work, a sort of "re-mapping" of Western discourse about the imagined "East," Said gave birth to postcolonial studies as a formal discipline within the humanities. The book produced contrary views, but could not be ignored by the intellectual community. Indeed, much to Said's own surprise, it became a best-seller in Sweden.

Culture and Imperialism, published 15 years later, was a follow-up to and an enlargement of the ideas put forth in Orientalism. In it, Said introduced his concept of "contrapuntal reading," a phrase borrowed from classical music - in which he was trained as a concert pianist.

This liberating method of considering texts allows for both the appreciation of canonical works - something the politicized Left often has trouble doing - and the necessary amplification of repressed voices within those works - which academy-entrenched traditionalists continue to avoid. The section on Jane Austen's Mansfield Park gave "voice" to the Antigua plantation upon which the protagonists depend not only economically, but psychologically as well. Said's interpretation sparked conservative outrage.

When I received the sad news of Said's death, I instinctively glanced in the direction of my bookshelf. Wedged between two volumes of postcolonial criticism, the often contentious discipline he unwittingly helped to establish, was my battered and African-dust covered copy of Culture and Imperialism.

During the summer of 2000, after graduating from the University of Georgia - where I majored in English and was first introduced to Said's work by another courageous literature professor - I trekked around the coast of Lake Malawi carrying Said with me.

Though I had been to Africa before hearing Said's name, reading his critique of Western culture in an African context changed the way I "imagined the geography" I was experiencing. And reading him led me to read Franz Fanon, Chinua Achebe, and Ngugi wa Thiongo. I am just one small example of how Said opened minds willing to listen. And a willingness to listen to, instead of speaking for others - learning from, rather than defining - is at the base of Said's philosophy. In one of his last articles, published July 20, 2003 in the Los Angeles Times, Said highlighted a lack of willingness to "listen" in the Bush administration. In "Blind Imperial Arrogance," Said writes that "every empire tells itself and the world that it is unlike all other empires, that its mission is not to plunder and control but to educate and liberate."

Subtitled "Vile Stereotyping of Arabs by the U.S. Ensures Years of Turmoil," Said's views about the near future of both his natural home of Palestine and his adopted home of the United States were dismal.

Without someone who will rapidly fill Edward Said's big shoes, his sudden absence nearly ensures the tragic accuracy of his predictions.

Scott Boehm

Scott Boehm was a student at UGA, and is currently teaching English in Madrid, Spain.

The Bottom Line

What Bush Costs Us

Tons of additional air pollutants permitted to be released by 2020 under Bush's "Clear Skies" plan:

42 million

Estimated number of premature deaths that will result:

100,000

Estimated amount that Clear Skies-related health problems will cost taxpayers, per year:

$115 billion

Days after Bush took office that he reneged on his campaign promise to regulate CO2 emissions from power plants:

53

Days after the U.S. Geological Survey released a 12-year study indicating that drilling in the Arctic Refuge would pose "significant harm to wildlife" that the agency reversed itself:

7

Years that the Bush Administration says global warming must be further studied before substantive action can be taken:

5

Number of members of the 63-person energy advisory team Bush convened early in his administration who did not have ties to corporate energy interests:

1

Amount that energy team members gave to Republican candidates in the 2000 election:

$8 million

Percentage of "replacement wetlands" developers are required to create that end up failing, according to the General Accounting Office:

80

Area, in acres, of wetlands, lakes, and streams opened to development under a proposal to end federal oversight of "isolated waters:"

20 million

Area, in acres, of Lake Superior:

20.3 million

Estimated acres of public land the Administration announced in April it will open to logging, road building and mining:

220 million

Acreage of California and Texas, combined:

267 million

Number of snowmobiles allowed in Yellowstone National Park this winter, per day:

1,100

Percentage of the 360,000 public comments received by the Park Service that were against repealing the Clinton-era ban on snowmobiles in the park:

80

Percentage of Superfund cleanup costs paid for by corporate polluters in 1996:

82

Percentage that will be paid for by taxpayers under Bush's 2004 budget:

79

Amount at which the EPA historically valued each human life when conducting economic analyses of proposed regulations:

$6.1 million

Amount the EPA considers each person worth as of 2003:

$3.7 million

Average annual number of species added to the Endangered and Threatened Species list between 1991 and 2000:

68.4

Number voluntarily added by the Bush Administration since taking office:

0

Grade Bush received on the League of Conservation Voters' 2002 presidential report card:

D-

Grade he received in 2003:

F

Sources: Center for Responsive Politics, Clear the Air, Department of the Interior, Earthjustice, General Accounting Office, League of Conservation Voters, National Park Service, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

- The Foundation for National Progress

The current issue of Mother Jones magazine features a 20-page package on the Bush Administration's stealth war on environmental regulations. This list, reprinted with permission from Mother Jones, offers a quick overview. For more on the subject, pick up the Sept./Oct. issue of Mother Jones or visit www.motherjones.com and check out The UnGreening of America.

Graven Images

Establishing Religion

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) finally filed suit in September against a stubborn Barrow County Commission, after the six commissioners and one chairman voted to continue displaying a copy of the Ten Commandments in the county courthouse.

The unanimous vote was backed by hundreds of citizens, who have rallied on the steps of the Barrow courthouse, as well as at the state Capitol, demanding the commingling of church and state.

The usual hubris espoused in such crusades has been in top form recently, and, as expected, the politicians are taking their stabs.

"Ours is a nation founded on freedom of religion, not freedom from religion," Gov. Sonny Perdue said recently in Atlanta.

The chairman of the Barrow commission, Eddie Elders, who is being sued along with the commission, was even more passionate. Concluding the meeting at which the Commandments vote took place, Elders said, "I hope there's one thing that we have sent a message [about]... Don't come to Barrow County and mess with our families or mess with our God."

Earlier at the same meeting, a woman was booed by fellow citizens when she tried to give her input - which was that the Commandments should be removed - to the commission and to the people. She was told by those around her to "shut up and sit down," that she should "go home," and that she "ain't welcome no more."

The ACLU's plaintiff is cited as "John Doe," a Barrow County resident who wishes to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals from fanatical citizens.

(If that sounds, as it apparently does to some in the Commandment camp, over-cautious or paranoid, recall that in 1981 religious extremists burned down plaintiff Joann Bell's house during her anti-school prayer suit.)

Elders has met and discussed strategy with County Attorney Currie Mingledorff II, and the conservative American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) has reportedly agreed to defend him and the commission.

The ACLJ, an ultra-conservative law firm founded by evangelist Pat Robertson, believes that the "Ten Commandments are an integral part of the foundation of our law," and therefore they meet the legal requirement for public display.

The crusaders (inasmuch as we can decipher their euphemistic and symbolic language) seem to think either 1) that current law - the First and 14th Amendments, the Georgia Constitution and court rulings - does not prohibit displaying distinctly religious documents in courthouses, or 2) that such display is illegal, but they simply oppose the laws. Devotees of both persuasions seem to think, like the ACLJ, that the Commandments' historical importance in American law gives it validity to grace the walls (or rotundas, if you like) of our courthouses.

Internationally-respected Yeshiva University Law Professor Marci Hamilton (who also happens to be a Christian) attempts in a recent treatise to clear up any misconceptions about the Commandments as they relate to our legal heritage.

The article, published at FindLaw.com, the most-visited website for legal studies, states that the "primary problem with the claim that the Ten Commandments are the sole source of American law is that the facts simply do not support it. To the contrary, there are many, varied sources for American law."

Hamilton quotes Thomas Jefferson, who said that those who attempt to incorporate the Ten Commandments with common law would be laying "the yoke of their own opinions on the necks of others."

She cites the Code of Hammurabi, Greek and Roman influences, the Magna Carta and, closer to the modern era, "British common law, which itself was viewed either as rising from natural law or from custom, not from the Ten Commandments" as the more dominant ancestors of our legal system.

Most constitutional law experts who have voiced their opinions say that the case should be easily won by the plaintiff, and that the Commandments will have to be removed.

Either way, what the zealots are missing is that freedom of religion, most importantly, is about our freedom to extricate the explicitly religious from our places of justice and education (not to speak it and hang it wherever we please) and about agreeing that we as a nation must have social arrangements bound to the realm of humanity, not merely the realm of Christianity.

Tanner Brown

Tanner Brown is a local freelance writer.

Humble Pie

How to Withdraw From Iraq

Haughty as it was, George W. Bush's request for United Nations help in Iraq deserves credit. It is, after all, his first tacit acknowledgment that his war is a fiscal, political and military catastrophe. Democrats and Republicans differ on how much command authority to cede to the U.N., but everyone agrees that we should replace as many of our besieged occupation troops as possible with peacekeepers from other nations.

For the first time since 9/11, Americans are on the same page. Common sense is back: Bush's popularity ratings are at a record low. People finally understand that this war is killing too many and costing too much. (The original Congressional estimate of $50-$60 billion has mushroomed to $87 billion - and that's just for a few months. Another five years of occupation could run more than half a trillion dollars.) Unless something changes fast in a big way, there's no end in sight. "It reminds me of Vietnam," Marine General Anthony Zinni, former head of U.S. Central Command, says. But we don't have to keep on keeping on. We can get out of Iraq early, save lives, and reduce anti-Americanism around the world. But we'll have to do something new.

Let's apologize! Here's how:

"Being American has meant never having to say 'you're sorry," Bush should tell the U.N. "We've long been powerful enough to do as we please. But a great country must learn from its mistakes. And we are brave enough to admit that we made a mistake in Iraq.

"The invasion was the result of a terrible error in judgment. We relied on intelligence that convinced us that Saddam Hussein represented a grave threat to the security of the world, but that information turned out to be out-of-date. Experts warned us that Iraq might fall apart after we deposed its tyrant, but we were in denial, dismissing our critics as partisan foes. We convinced ourselves that liberation would naturally yield to democracy. We were wrong. Instead, it created a power vacuum. Worst of all, in our rush to protect our own nation in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, we jeopardized the most important principle of international security, that of freedom from unprovoked attacks, respect for self-determination and national sovereignty.

"On behalf of my Administration and the people of the United States, I am truly sorry. If I could go back to March of this year, I would. I wish I could bring back the 300 American servicemen and the thousands of Iraqis who died as the result of our horrible mistake. But what's done is done. No one can change history.

"As a Christian, however, I believe that one is required to make penance for his sins. That means asking forgiveness for what one has done wrong - while doing as much as one can to reverse the damage one has caused. I have given serious consideration to what the United States should do to make penance for its war against Iraq.

"First, we must rebuild Iraq's economy and provide real security so that its people can rebuild their society and take control of their own destiny. Unfortunately, our occupation force is composed of the same American soldiers who killed and maimed innocent Iraqis during the invasion, and whose swaggering presence continues to provoke anger. 'We should have been culturally sensitive,' a Special Forces officer admitted to Time magazine. 'We should never have gone into people's houses. Saddam's soldiers never went into houses. We don't understand how things work around here.' It's too late to make a good first impression. Not only do the Iraqi people resent our soldiers, they've become the targets of Islamist extremists from other countries. The longer they stay, the worse things will become - for them, for us, for the people of Iraq. Should the international community agree, we propose the withdrawal of every last American soldier from Iraq. They should be replaced by 400,000 U.N. peacekeepers - ideally led by those from Arabic-speaking countries - to police the streets. We ask for no control and no input in this operation. Send us the bill. We'll pay whatever it costs, for as long as it takes.

"Second, we will compensate whatever Iraqi government ultimately emerges from the U.N. mandate for the damage we've caused to infrastructure and public buildings. U.S. companies will be prohibited from doing business in Iraq.

"Third, we will issue generous compensation packages to the families of individuals who died or otherwise suffered injury at the hands of U.S. forces. We know that it won't bring back loved ones, but it's a gesture of our true regret.

"Finally, those who wage war before attempting to resolve conflicts through diplomatic means must face personal responsibility for their actions. Therefore, I will immediately turn myself, my vice president, the officials of my cabinet and certain members of Congress over to the international tribunal at The Hague for prosecution for war crimes in connection with our illegal invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. In accordance with this decision, I hereby resign the office of President of the United States, and respectfully await instructions from Secretary Annan as to where to present myself for surrender.

"May God bless you, and may He forgive me and my country."

Ted Rall

Columnist and cartoonist Ted Rall is the author of the graphic travelogue To Afghanistan and Back.