2008 Woodie Awards
Think protest is 'distasteful and innapropriate?' Try war
By: David Seitz, Opinion Editor
Issue date: 2/29/08 Section: Opinion
My favorite scene in the 1950 classic "All About Eve" comes when a rather drunk Bette Davis complains bitterly of her working class upbringing in front of monied guests.
Suddenly and sardonically, she interrupts herself:
"I'm being 'rude' now, aren't I? Or should I say, 'ain't I?'"
Rude indeed. Even at Dear Old civically engaged Macalester, talking about a sticky issue like class-much less owning one's own position within that issue-can get a person shushed in the name of la politesse.
Take the war, for instance. In last week's issue, we ran a letter to the editor poopooing the timing of a brilliantly executed protest meant to actualize in some small way the daily horrors of the U.S. occupation of Iraq. As part of a nationwide effort for a war moratorium, students in Macalester Peace and Justice Committee-Students for a Democratic Society spray painted the outlines of bodies on the snow across campus.
The authors of the letter argued that the staging of the protest right after a shooting at Northern Illinois University was "distasteful and inappropriate."
Really?
The need to mourn the horror that took place at NIU is unquestionably heartfelt and deep.
But let's unpack this. Is grieving the violence at NIU really contingent upon our willfully ignoring daily experiences of violence in Iraq-violence in which many of us who are U.S. citizens understand ourselves to be complicit?
Do we imagine the suffering at NIU as "more important" or "more real" than the ever-rising Iraqi civilian death tool in Iraq? If so, why, and further, how, did we come to understand some persons touched by violence as more deserving of compassion than others?
This isn't about setting up a comparative framework of who has it worse. But even temporarily shutting down the conversation won't help.
Not thinking about what role we can play in ending systematic violence in Iraq doesn't point us toward an adequate way to heal from an isolated incident in Illinois.
Suddenly and sardonically, she interrupts herself:
"I'm being 'rude' now, aren't I? Or should I say, 'ain't I?'"
Rude indeed. Even at Dear Old civically engaged Macalester, talking about a sticky issue like class-much less owning one's own position within that issue-can get a person shushed in the name of la politesse.
Take the war, for instance. In last week's issue, we ran a letter to the editor poopooing the timing of a brilliantly executed protest meant to actualize in some small way the daily horrors of the U.S. occupation of Iraq. As part of a nationwide effort for a war moratorium, students in Macalester Peace and Justice Committee-Students for a Democratic Society spray painted the outlines of bodies on the snow across campus.
The authors of the letter argued that the staging of the protest right after a shooting at Northern Illinois University was "distasteful and inappropriate."
Really?
The need to mourn the horror that took place at NIU is unquestionably heartfelt and deep.
But let's unpack this. Is grieving the violence at NIU really contingent upon our willfully ignoring daily experiences of violence in Iraq-violence in which many of us who are U.S. citizens understand ourselves to be complicit?
Do we imagine the suffering at NIU as "more important" or "more real" than the ever-rising Iraqi civilian death tool in Iraq? If so, why, and further, how, did we come to understand some persons touched by violence as more deserving of compassion than others?
This isn't about setting up a comparative framework of who has it worse. But even temporarily shutting down the conversation won't help.
Not thinking about what role we can play in ending systematic violence in Iraq doesn't point us toward an adequate way to heal from an isolated incident in Illinois.
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