"Tattletales for an Open Society"... letter to Lieberman and Lynne Cheney.

[madfloridian]

Remember this series at The Nation?

Tattletales for an Open Society
Martin J. Sherwin | Tattle on yourself to the ACTA, which has taken to naming the names of those who dare to question any aspect of the war on terrorism.
January 21, 2002 (web)

An Open Letter to Dr. Lynne Cheney and Senator Joseph Lieberman

Dear Dr. Cheney and Senator Lieberman:

On November 11, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA), an organization you co-founded in 1995, issued a report that listed the names of academics along with 117 statements they made, in public forums or in classes, that questioned aspects of the Administration's war on terrorism. Concluding that "College and university faculty have been the weak link in America's response to the attack," the report asked alumni to bring their (presumed) displeasure about these views to the attention of university administrations. While ACTA's report does not have the cachet of President Nixon's "Enemies List," nor the intimidating force (yet?) of Senator Joseph McCarthy's too-numerous-to-list lists, as an American historian I am naturally interested in this project, and I have decided to offer your organization my full cooperation.

Therefore, as an example to my colleagues, I am stepping forward to name a name, my own--Martin J. Sherwin, the Walter S. Dickson Professor of English and American History at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts--and to tattle on myself. On December 3, 2001, I remarked to a class at Tufts University studying World War II that there was an ominous resemblance between the sense of panic in 1942 that produced Executive Order 9066, permitting the internment of American citizens of Japanese ancestry, and the post-9/11 atmosphere that supported the Justice Department's arrest of hundreds of Muslims.

Later, on December 6, after hearing Attorney General John Ashcroft assert before the Senate Judiciary Committee that civil-liberties critics "aid terrorists...erode our national unity and diminish our resolve," I told my class that Mr. Ashcroft had bolstered my resolve to diminish his effort to remake our public discourse in the image of Pinochet's Chile--even if senators who were equally shocked, were too cowed at that moment to challenge such an un-American attitude. Surrendering the liberties that define the unique character of our nation will not help us to win the war on terrorism, I noted; on the contrary, it will only erode the constitutional foundation upon which the political strength of our nation rests. The AG's defense of military commissions (secret trials) in the United States in 2002--even to try suspected terrorists--is an affront to those who fought and died to protect our freedoms in World War II. I recommended that students read Robert Sherrill's book, Military Justice Is to Justice As Military Music Is to Music.

My goodness, this is sounding a lot like David Horowitz and his bunch. I had not heard about this group. I do know professors in the last few years have been very cautious about speaking up. More to our shame in this country.

And one more paragraph:

Finally, Dr. Cheney and Senator Lieberman, I implore you as the Founding Mother and Father of ACTA to exert your influence to assure that in the next report Martin J. Sherwin is correctly spelled. Having been too young to be of interest to Senator Joseph McCarthy, and having been embarrassed by my absence from President Nixon's "Enemies List," ACTA's list may be my last opportunity to publicly document my deep love for my country. When my grandchild asks, "What did you do during the 'War on Terrorism,' grandpa?" I will say, "Harry, I spoke out in order to preserve for you and your friends the best things about America. You can read what I said in the ACTA report of..." (date as yet unspecified).

[madfloridian]

1. A P.S. from Sherwin

"P.S. Kai Bird and I are writing a biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer, whose secret security hearing in 1954 is instructive in these matters."

I think they won a Pulitzer for it.

[cmkramer]

2. I wish I could stop posting this

This is a letter that Joe Lieberman sent to ACTA and which was published in THE NATION, hardly a Lieberman apologist.

December 18, 2001



Jerry Martin
President
American Council of Trustees and Alumni
1726 M Street NW, Suite 800
Washington, DC 20036-4525


Dear Jerry:

I am writing in regards to the Council's recent report, Defending Civilization: How Our Universities Are Failing America and What Can Be Done About It.

In the past, the Council has often sent me advanced copies of its publications before they have been released and asked for my support. In this case, though, I was never given the opportunity to review the Defending Civilization report before it was made public. I first learned of it through a call to my office from a reporter in Connecticut about a controversy the report had stirred at Wesleyan University.

If I had been given an advanced copy, I would have objected to its content and methodology and asked you either to revise it or make clear that I had no involvement with it. But because that did not happen, and because I have been incorrectly listed on your website as a co-founder of the Council, a number of news accounts and commentaries have associated me with the report and incorrectly asserted or implied that I endorse it.

This letter is meant to set the record straight about my disapproval of this report, which I consider unfair and inconsistent for an organization devoted to promoting academic freedom. To avoid any future confusion, I would ask you to remove any reference to me as a "co-founder" of ACTA from your website or other Council documents. And I would ask that you note in any future public statements that I do not support this specific report. Thank you.

Joe Lieberman

[madfloridian]

4. So it was printed before the Sherwin article.

I have no idea how many times you have had to post that, but please don't make it sound like I am making you do it.

I simply ran across that and posted it. I was totally unaware that Joe had answered that before Sherwin posted his.

I am glad Joe was not going along with it. I have seen what the right wing has done to professors. I have many in my neighborhood near a college and university, and they have been hurt badly by the Horowitz professor witch hunt.

[tblue37]

3. In an article entitled "What Does 'Begging the Question' Really Mean?"

on my Grammar and Usage for the Non-Expert website, I wrote this (among other things):

When President Bush repeatedly suggested during the run-up to the invasion that Saddam Hussein, because of his hatred of the U.S., would be likely to give weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) to al-Quaida, he was assuming a cooperative relationship between Hussein and al-Quaida, as well as assuming that Hussein actually did have WMDs. But what he needed to prove in order to justify the invasion was that Hussein had WMDs and/or that Hussein had a cooperative relationship with al-Quaida. Those were precisely the issues under contention, but his arguments for invasion always treated them as the premises, as if they were already proven.

And when President Bush calls it "revisionist history" whenever anyone questions whether intelligence was manipulated to justify the invasion, he is also begging the question. The only way to argue that intelligence was not manipulated would be to show that it was not. Simply saying such questions are "revisionist history," is not answering the questions, but evading them.
http://www.grammartips.homestead.com/begging.html

A reader who emailed me on Sept. 21 of this year had this to say:

I looked at your definition of “begging the question” and thought it okay until I got to the politics. Comical…you commit the same error in your accusations of Bush and Rice after droning on about students making the very same mistake. This would have been better titled as Lib Politics 101 – and if this isn’t a textbook definition of circular logic, I don’t know what is. LOL. I’ll bet your one of those professors/teachers students absolutely hate because you have this false sense of intellectual superiority.

No wonder our universities and public schools are a travesty. I’m going to use this site as a perfect example of lib bias and send it on to David Horowitz. He loves to shred fools like you. Maybe he will make you famous in a future article!< Emphasis added.>

Notice that he says he will "report" me to someone who could make my life hell should he decide to come after me for daring to express a political opinion in an article on my own website that I pay for out of my own pocket. This is not a university site at all, but a personal website that happens to deal with grammar and usage.

[elehhhhna]

5. "Dr. Cheney" ?? In what frikkin universe? Pounding hub's chest daily

doesn't make her a Doctor.