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President
says debate must replace the clash of civilizations
By Ghia Osseiran--
In the wake of the past yearÕs turbulent events culminating
in the September 11 attacks on the United States, President
Waterbury waged his own war against violence and the theory
of a clash of civilizations, in a speech he gave to a crowded
Assembly Hall on October 1, marking AUBÕs 136th opening ceremony.
The most ominous challenge facing the 21st Century was supposed
to be the Y2K bug, a technical problem befit of the new millenium.
What confronts us instead are Òcrises that smell more of the
dark ages.Ó Innocent peopleÕs deaths have become more rampant
in various parts of the world from Muhammed Al-DuraÕs murder
in Palestine, the suicide bombing at a pizzaria in Jerusalem
to the most recent attack on American civilians. ÒIs one kind
of death more worthy or more shocking than another? Is the slow
personalized death of Muhammad al-Dura more or less deplorable
than the sudden and mass deaths of the thousands in the Trade
Center?Ó Waterbury questioned. These events, though varying
in circumstance, are very much related in essence, according
to Waterbury. As are the people who have also come to encourage
their governmentÕs resort to violence with the majority of Israelis
supporting state-sponsored killings, the majority of Palestinians
supporting suicide bombing and most of the Americans approving
war despite the consequent US casualties. ÒLet us be a forum
in which those within our walls and those outside them can try
to make sense of the unnerving challenges facing us,Ó suggested
Waterbury. The President then drifted with his audience back
to the morning of September 11, to the 6:00 am train heÕd taken
from Princeton New Jersey to the AUB office in New York where
he was at the time of the attack. ÒI thought to myself that
the train I had taken that morning was the train of death,Ó
said Waterbury. The President depicted a mosque close to a Coptic
church two miles away from Princeton whose outer wall was covered
by a large American flag. He then highlighted an encounter with
an American policeman familiar with the Islamic religion and
its rituals and feasts that are part of the New Jersey way of
life. ÒAll these events and scenes that we have witnessed from
near or from far make me feel our common links, our shared fears
and hopes, our common humanity,Ó concluded Waterbury emphasizing
the interconnectedness of the world across civilizations. AUB
under such circumstances must evolve becoming more than a place
where one merely earns a living and acquires an education. AUB
now ought to serve as the forum for discussion and debate in
order to make sense of the agitating events surrounding us.
Being human is being beset with innumerable contradictory desires
such as the desire to hate, to seek vengeance, and the desire
to even kill. But it is in such cases that a university intervenes
to Ò lift us above our humanness and connect us to our humanity,Ó
stated Waterbury, After the singing of the Alma Mater and Eternal
Night by the AUB choir, University administrators, deans, and
faculty, clad in their various regalia peacefully made their
way outside Assembly Hall. In contrast to last year, no active
students awaited them outside holding banners in protest of
the tuition increase, the privatization of the bookstore, or
the distribution of financial aid. Cold refreshments instead
welcomed students and faculty, old and new, outside Assembly
Hall for a short informal gathering before classes resumed for
the day. |
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