Posted on 09/16/2001 3:56:56 PM PDT by Marcella
Need help from Freepers: Read this Houston Chronicle Article. This guy teaches our children. I have copied the information below the article from the University of Texas at Austin site. Could all of you send emails to him, make phone calls to him and University of Texas President's Office, any of you living in or around Austin go down there and picket his office and do anythingelse you can think of to rid Texas of this blight. He needs to go to some other country, maybe Afghanistan. I haven't gone to his "home page" but think I will to see what that is like. If I find more stuff there you would be interested to know will post that.
Houston Chronicle 9/14/01U.S. just as guilty of committing own violent acts By ROBERT JENSEN
Sept. 11 was a day of sadness, anger and fear. Like everyone in the United States and around the world, I shared the deep sadness at the deaths of thousands. But as I listened to people around me talk, I realized the anger and fear I felt were very different, for my primary anger is directed at the leaders of this country and my fear is not only for the safety of Americans but for innocent civilians in other countries. It should need not be said, but I will say it: The acts of terrorism that killed civilians in New York and Washington were reprehensible and indefensible; to try to defend them would be to abandon one's humanity. No matter what the motivation of the attackers, the method is beyond discussion. But this act was no more despicable than the massive acts of terrorism -- the deliberate killing of civilians for political purposes -- that the U.S. government has committed during my lifetime. For more than five decades throughout the Third World, the United States has deliberately targeted civilians or engaged in violence so indiscriminate that there is no other way to understand it except as terrorism. And it has supported similar acts of terrorism by client states. If that statement seems outrageous, ask the people of Vietnam. Or Cambodia and Laos. Or Indonesia and East Timor. Or Chile. Or Central America. Or Iraq. Or Palestine. The list of countries and peoples who have felt the violence of this country is long. Vietnamese civilians bombed by the United States. Timorese civilians killed by a U.S. ally with U.S.-supplied weapons. Nicaraguan civilians killed by a U.S. proxy army of terrorists. Iraqi civilians killed by the deliberate bombing of an entire country's infrastructure. So, my anger is directed not only at individuals who engineered the Sept. 11 tragedy, but at those who have held power in the United States and have engineered attacks on civilians every bit as tragic. That anger is compounded by hypocritical U.S. officials' talk of their commitment to higher ideals, as President Bush proclaimed "our resolve for justice and peace." To the president, I can only say: The stilled voices of the millions killed in Southeast Asia, in Central America, in the Middle East as a direct result of U.S. policy are the evidence of our resolve for justice and peace. Though that anger stayed with me off and on all day on Sept. 11, it quickly gave way to fear, but not the fear of "Where will the terrorists strike next?" which I heard voiced all around me. Instead, I almost immediately had to face the question: "When will the United States, without regard for civilian casualties, retaliate?" I wish the question were, "Will the United States retaliate?" But if history is a guide, it is a question only of when and where. So, the question is which civilians will be unlucky enough to be in the way of the U.S. bombs and missiles that might be unleashed. The last time the United States responded to terrorism, the attack on its embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, it was innocents in the Sudan and Afghanistan who were in the way. We were told that time around they hit only military targets, though the target in the Sudan turned out to be a pharmaceutical factory. As I monitored television during the day on Tuesday, the talk of retaliation was in the air; in the voices of some of the national security "experts" there was a hunger for retaliation. Even the journalists couldn't resist; speculating on a military strike that might come, Peter Jennings of ABC News said, "The response is going to have to be massive," if it is to be effective. Let us not forget that a "massive response" will kill people, and if thepattern of past U.S. actions holds, it will kill innocents. Innocentpeople, just like the ones in the towers in New York and the ones on theairplanes that were hijacked. To borrow from President Bush, "mother andfathers, friends and neighbors" will surely die in a massive response. If we are truly going to claim to be decent people, our tears must flow not only for those of our own country. People are people, and grief that is limited to those within a specific political boundary denies the humanity of others. And if we are to be decent people, we all must demand of our government -- the government that a great man of peace, Martin Luther King Jr., once described as "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world" -- that the insanity stop here. Jensen is a professor of journalism at the University of Texas in Austin. Faculty Member Robert Jensen Associate Professorrjensen@mail.utexas.edu Courses Fall 2001J310 Critical Issues in JournalismFS301 The Ethics and Politics of Everyday LifeTC357 Freedom of Expression Contact Info Mailing Address:Journalism Dept.Mail Code: A1000University of TexasAustin, TX 78712 Phone512.471.1990 Fax512.471.7979 OfficeCMA 5.134D W 8:30 - 11:30 a.m. LinksBob Jensen's HomepageBob Jensen's PortfolioFaculty Books Page Robert Jensen became a member of the UT journalism faculty in 1992 after earning his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. Jensen received an M.A. in journalism and public affairs from American University and his B.S. in social studies/education from Moorehead State University.Jensen has received the 1996-97 Texas Excellence Teaching Award for the College of Communication. This annual award is based on student nominations. Recently he won the 2000-01 Dads' Association Centennial Teaching Fellowship, a university-wide award honoring excellence in undergraduate teaching, with an emphasis on teaching first-year students. Jensen's writings cover topics including media law and ethics, news gathering and news construction, media depictions of gender and sexuality, pornography and violence against women, as well as feminist ethics and jurisprudence. He has written two books: Freeing the First Amendment and Pornography: The Production and Consumption of Inequality.He is currently affiliated with several local political groups, such as the UT Radical Action Network and National Network to End the War against Iraq, which have organized teach-ins, demonstrations and public education events about U.S. foreign policy. He is a member of the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) and a supporter of the University Staff Association's fight for fair wages. Course History: Name Robert JensenRobert W Jensen Title Assoc Professor, Ph.D. College/Department Department of JournalismCollege of Communication E-Mail rjensen@uts.cc.utexas.edu Office Phone +1 512-471-1990 Office Address Journalism DeptCampus Mail Code: A1000University of TexasAustin, TX 78712 Room CMA 4.112 Home Phone +1 512-371-9327 Home Address 4209 Burnet Rd #204Austin, TX 78756
Ummm.... You don't get to Austin much, do you? No shockers here.
Houston Chronicle 9/14/01
U.S. Just As Guilty of Committing Own Violent Acts
By Robert Jenson
Sept. 11 was a day of sadness, anger and fear. Like everyone in the United States and around the world, I shared the deep sadness at the deaths of thousands. But as I listened to people around me talk, I realized the anger and fear I felt were very different, for my primary anger is directed at the leaders of this country and my fear is not only for the safety of Americans but for innocent civilians in other countries.
It should need not be said, but I will say it: The acts of terrorism that killed civilians in New York and Washington were reprehensible and indefensible; to try to defend them would be to abandon one's humanity.
No matter what the motivation of the attackers, the method is beyond discussion. But this act was no more despicable than the massive acts of terrorism -- the deliberate killing of civilians for political purposes -- that the U.S. government has committed during my lifetime.
For more than five decades throughout the Third World, the United States has deliberately targeted civilians or engaged in violence so indiscriminate that there is no other way to understand it except as terrorism. And it has supported similar acts of terrorism by client states.
If that statement seems outrageous, ask the people of Vietnam. Or Cambodia and Laos. Or Indonesia and East Timor. Or Chile. Or Central America. Or Iraq. Or Palestine. The list of countries and peoples who have felt the violence of this country is long.
Vietnamese civilians bombed by the United States. Timorese civilians killed by a U.S. ally with U.S.-supplied weapons. Nicaraguan civilians killed by a U.S. proxy army of terrorists. Iraqi civilians killed by the deliberate bombing of an entire country's infrastructure.
So, my anger is directed not only at individuals who engineered the Sept. 11 tragedy, but at those who have held power in the United States and have engineered attacks on civilians every bit as tragic.
That anger is compounded by hypocritical U.S. officials' talk of their commitment to higher ideals, as President Bush proclaimed "our resolve for justice and peace."
To the president, I can only say: The stilled voices of the millions killed in Southeast Asia, in Central America, in the Middle East as a direct result of U.S. policy are the evidence of our resolve for justice and peace.
Though that anger stayed with me off and on all day on Sept. 11, it quickly gave way to fear, but not the fear of "Where will the terrorists strike next?" which I heard voiced all around me. Instead, I almost immediately had to face the question: "When will the United States, without regard for civilian casualties, retaliate?"
I wish the question were, "Will the United States retaliate?" But if history is a guide, it is a question only of when and where. So, the question is which civilians will be unlucky enough to be in the way of the U.S. bombs and missiles that might be unleashed.
The last time the United States responded to terrorism, the attack on its embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, it was innocents in the Sudan and Afghanistan who were in the way. We were told that time around they hit only military targets, though the target in the Sudan turned out to be a pharmaceutical factory.
As I monitored television during the day on Tuesday, the talk of retaliation was in the air; in the voices of some of the national security "experts" there was a hunger for retaliation. Even the journalists couldn't resist; speculating on a military strike that might come, Peter Jennings of ABC News said, "The response is going to have to be massive," if it is to be effective.
Let us not forget that a "massive response" will kill people, and if thepattern of past U.S. actions holds, it will kill innocents. Innocent people, just like the ones in the towers in New York and the ones on the airplanes that were hijacked. To borrow from President Bush, "mother and fathers, friends and neighbors" will surely die in a massive response.
If we are truly going to claim to be decent people, our tears must flow not only for those of our own country. People are people, and grief that is limited to those within a specific political boundary denies the humanity of others. And if we are to be decent people, we all must demand of our government -- the government that a great man of peace, Martin Luther King Jr., once described as "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world" -- that the insanity stop here.
Jensen is a professor of journalism at the University of Texas in Austin. Links Bob Jensen's Homepage Bob Jensen's Portfolio Faculty Books Page Robert Jensen became a member of the UT journalism faculty in 1992 after earning his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. Jensen received an M.A. in journalism and public affairs from American University and his B.S. in social studies/education from Moorehead State University. Jensen has received the 1996-97 Texas Excellence Teaching Award for the College of Communication. This annual award is based on student nominations. Recently he won the 2000-01 Dads' Association Centennial Teaching Fellowship, a university-wide award honoring excellence in undergraduate teaching, with an emphasis on teaching first-year students. Jensen's writings cover topics including media law and ethics, news gathering and news construction, media depictions of gender and sexuality, pornography and violence against women, as well as feminist ethics and jurisprudence. He has written two books: Freeing the First Amendment and Pornography: The Production and Consumption of Inequality. He is currently affiliated with several local political groups, such as the UT Radical Action Network and National Network to End the War against Iraq, which have organized teach-ins, demonstrations and public education events about U.S. foreign policy. He is a member of the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) and a supporter of the University Staff Association's fight for fair wages.
Faculty Member Robert Jensen Associate Professor rjensen@mail.utexas.edu
Courses Fall 2001: J310 Critical Issues in Journalism, FS301 The Ethics and Politics of Everyday Life, TC357 Freedom of Expression.
(Additional contact information is left out; see original unformatted article for addresses and phone numbers)
Surprise, surprise.
This is UT url. Houston Chronicle doesn't allow one to get articles off their web site. The article was sent to me by email from a Republican Party officer.
Maf/Topaz... FYI for the Dallas Chapter
During your posting process, didn't you "Preview"? Did you just look at it and say "What the hell?".
When I see something like this showing up, I just don't read it. I'm old, my eyes are tired, and I have better things to do.
I'm not a member of the "Posting Police". I'm just getting tired of people not taking care. Try again.
The Koran says to kill all infidels. We are in a holy war. We didn't declare it. They did. Even if we refuse to fight, they will. Even if we say we aren't in a holy war, they are, and they're in it against us. Personally, I'd like to see the first bombing be the Dome of the Rock. If the Crusaders had not taken the battle to the Moslems, it would have been brought to them. Ever wonder why there are so many Moslems in Eastern Europe? That's where the advance was halted.
246 Posted on 09/15/2001 21:29:30 PDT by Richard Kimball
(BTW, I spelled his name wrong in my reformatting of the article)
People like this guy, if he is sincere, can always offer their own fortunes to help these innocents and their own bodies to be burned in place of these folks who are killed and maimed as a result of their leaders cowardly acts.
This will likely never happen since most of these folks are very careful not to put their own hides in harms way.
Here is another of his articles from that site ( Why I will not rally around the president ):
TRIPLE BARF ALERT!!
Why I Will Not Rally Around the President
by Robert Jensen
We are told that in this time of crisis, all good Americans should rally around the president and the flag.
I will rally, but not around a leader calling for war or a symbol of nationalism.
It is easy to understand the emotion behind the chanting of "USA, USA." But I will not chant.
In this time of crisis, I will rally around policies that seek peace and security, for all people everywhere. And instead of chanting, I will speak quietly about the grief we all feel, and loudly about the need to resist our leaders' plans for global war.
Decent people agree that in this time of crisis, we cannot let the lines of color and culture, of language and religion, divide us. But we need to go another step, to understand that the lines dividing people based on nations are just as dangerous. We must also agree not to give in to the urge to value the lives of innocent Americans over the lives of innocent people in other countries.
For the past few days -- in person and on the phone, through email and on the radio -- I have been called "unpatriotic," condemned as a "traitor" and labeled "anti-American" because my writing has opposed the drive to war, the call for blood to avenge those who died in the terror attacks.
But I also have heard from many others who also are concerned that U.S. officials will take us into a war that will bring only more death, pain and grief, leaving us less secure. They want to speak out but fear being attacked for not being "good Americans." This is a moment when we need the courage to say that being a good American does not mean supporting a war so violent and so indiscriminate that more innocent people will die.
That does not mean we renounce the ideals of freedom and justice so often associated with the United States; we should hold onto those ideals more fiercely than ever and put them into practice by resisting the rush to war.
We should honor the ideals of this country by saying, in as clear a voice as we can manage: Not in our name will the United States seek vengeance or go forward to kill.
It is important to read closely the joint resolution passed by Congress, which authorizes the president "to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on Sept. 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons."
That is not a resolution based on a quest for justice. It is an open-ended invitation to attack anyone U.S. leaders decide to target. And those leaders -- Dick Cheney and Colin Powell among them -- are some of the same people who during the Gulf War unleashed attacks not only on military targets but on civilians and the entire civilian infrastructure of Iraq, killing hundreds of thousands of innocent people during and after the war. This resolution, and the statements from the Bush administration about an ongoing global war, suggest that what is coming will be even more frightening.
When we speak out against war in public, we will find support, but we also should expect hostility. We should expect the question posed by one of the people who wrote to condemn me: "Whose side are you on?"
The answers to that are simple:
I am on the side of the people -- no matter where they live -- who will suffer the violence, not the leaders -- no matter where they live -- who will plan it.
I am on the side of peace, not war.
I am on the side of justice, not vengeance.
And most important, I am on the side of hope, not despair.
We do not have the luxury of despair right now. There is too much at stake for too many people.
Robert Jensen is a professor of journalism at the University of Texas at Austin. He can be reached at rjensen@uts.cc.utexas.edu.
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