In my last post, I said that Seymour Hersh will be coming to speak at Skyview High School in April, sponsored by the university. It turns out that as part of the same lecture series, William Schulz will be speaking on campus earlier in the day.Schulz used to be the head of Amnesty International USA, a human rights group. What seems really compelling about his speech is that he will speaking on the following topic: "How Amnesty International Has Exposed Human Rights Violations by the United States."
Wow. This seems bound to stir up some controversy, but, I think, in a good way. Since 9/11 and the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, we in America have been rethinking some of our ideas about how relate to the rest of the world. We are asking ourselves--How should we act towards other countries? What do other countries think about us? What should we do about suspected terrorists? And are people in the U.S. who are marginal in some way being treated as they should be?
Different Americans are all going to have different answers to these questions. Schulz's perspective, as a person who has worked for a long time for the concepts of human rights and international law, is one that I think is bound to be thought-provoking. As an activist, rather than a journalist, he's going to give a complementary perspective to Seymour Hersh's. While they are coming from different perspectives, both seem to have strong ideals and wish to expose the things that they feel are wrong.
For full disclosure, I was heavily involved in Amnesty International while at Clark College, and I still support the group's work. However, the reason that The VanCougar is covering this event is not because I am an Amnesty member. Schulz is a well-known speaker, and seems like a pretty high-profile event.
We'd be interested in knowing if you are planning to hear Schulz speak, and why or why not.
By the way, if you want to go to Schulz's speech, you have to register online before March 21. The event is free.
2 comments:
Rose:
In the blog entry regarding William Schulz, you stated, "For full disclosure, I was heavily involved in Amnesty International while at Clark College, and I still support the group's work. However, The VanCougar isn't covering this event because I am an Amnesty member. Schulz is a well-known speaker, and seems like a pretty high-profile event."
You've got to be kidding!! So what if you are a member of Amnesty International?! The Vancougar is the most bland and uncontroversial college newspaper I've ever read. You finally have an event worth covering, but you play it safe. Take a chance!! Surely someone else at the newspaper has the guts to take on such an important and controversial event that WSU is lucky enough to host, and report it fairly.
To clarify--I meant that the VanCougar is covering the event, but the reason is not that I was involved in Amnesty--the reason is that it is a worthy event.
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