Obligatory Ahmadinejad Post
I don't know how many people on the flist are following Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's visit to New York City aside from juxtoppozed. To be honest, if it weren't for him speaking at my alma mater/the institute that employs me I probably would not be following it since I am typically woefully under-informed re: politics and world news. But the whole Columbia community was swept up in his visit today so I figured I should at least mention it.
So yeah ... Ahmadinejad spoke at our main campus today as part of the annual World Leader's Forum. juxtoppozed has pictures up of the protesters and counter-protesters and the fliers and the crowds at her LJ if anyone wants to see what a circus it was. I took a few hours off from work this afternoon to watch the talk ... didn't actually have a seat reserved inside the auditorium, but it was broadcast live on a jumbotron screen set up at the middle of campus.
I won't go into the content of the forum itself since I'm sure that if anyone's really interested, it's probably all over YouTube and the rest of the internet by now. And it's hard for me to say whether I think Ahmadinejad should have been allowed to speak at Columbia (which has been one of the central points of debate surrounding this event), since this whole thing has been more of an Experience with a capital "E" for me than anything else. I don't support him, and I certainly don't support the human rights violations that have been committed under his regime. But in the spirit of All Star Superman Clark giving Lex Luthor a chance to say his piece after he's thrown in prison (yes, I do have to relate everything back to fandom, why do you ask? ^-^) I think that, for the most part, I agree with the university's decision to invite him. As Columbia's President Lee Bollinger said in the smack-down opening remarks he delivered today:
"We need to understand the world we live in, neither neglecting its glories nor shrinking from its threats and dangers. It is consistent with the idea that one should know thine enemies, to have the intellectual and emotional courage to confront the mind of evil and to prepare ourselves to act with the right temperament. In the moment, the arguments for free speech will never seem to match the power of the arguments against, but what we must remember is that this is precisely because free speech asks us to exercise extraordinary self-restraint against the very natural but often counter-productive impulses that lead us to retreat from engagement with ideas we dislike and fear."
/seriousness
Getting back to your regularly scheduled programming, though ... I am behind on the flist AND comment replies AGAIN *looks apologetically at everyone* I'm off to bed now, but I promise to start catching up tomorrow!! :D
So yeah ... Ahmadinejad spoke at our main campus today as part of the annual World Leader's Forum. juxtoppozed has pictures up of the protesters and counter-protesters and the fliers and the crowds at her LJ if anyone wants to see what a circus it was. I took a few hours off from work this afternoon to watch the talk ... didn't actually have a seat reserved inside the auditorium, but it was broadcast live on a jumbotron screen set up at the middle of campus.
I won't go into the content of the forum itself since I'm sure that if anyone's really interested, it's probably all over YouTube and the rest of the internet by now. And it's hard for me to say whether I think Ahmadinejad should have been allowed to speak at Columbia (which has been one of the central points of debate surrounding this event), since this whole thing has been more of an Experience with a capital "E" for me than anything else. I don't support him, and I certainly don't support the human rights violations that have been committed under his regime. But in the spirit of All Star Superman Clark giving Lex Luthor a chance to say his piece after he's thrown in prison (yes, I do have to relate everything back to fandom, why do you ask? ^-^) I think that, for the most part, I agree with the university's decision to invite him. As Columbia's President Lee Bollinger said in the smack-down opening remarks he delivered today:
"We need to understand the world we live in, neither neglecting its glories nor shrinking from its threats and dangers. It is consistent with the idea that one should know thine enemies, to have the intellectual and emotional courage to confront the mind of evil and to prepare ourselves to act with the right temperament. In the moment, the arguments for free speech will never seem to match the power of the arguments against, but what we must remember is that this is precisely because free speech asks us to exercise extraordinary self-restraint against the very natural but often counter-productive impulses that lead us to retreat from engagement with ideas we dislike and fear."
/seriousness
Getting back to your regularly scheduled programming, though ... I am behind on the flist AND comment replies AGAIN *looks apologetically at everyone* I'm off to bed now, but I promise to start catching up tomorrow!! :D