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The Richmond Times-Dispatch: Thurman's words resonate today
The words of Reverend Howard Thurman (1900-1981), dean of Marsh Chapel
from 1953 to 1965 and spiritual advisor to Reverend Martin Luther King,
Jr. (GRS'55, Hon.'59), were recalled during a two-day retreat on November
2 and 3 at Richmond Hill, an ecumenical Christian community in Richmond,
Va., reports the October 31 Richmond Times-Dispatch. "In light of
recent events, I think we could use a little Thurman," says April
Swofford, retreat coordinator. Thurman, who is credited with helping to
plant the nonviolent seeds of the Civil Rights movement, is often quoted
on such subjects as hate, love, power, leadership, religion, commitment,
and community. "Curious indeed is the fact that at a time of crisis,
men must be constantly reminded that the crisis does not mark the end
of all things," Thurman said during World War II -- a sentiment that
could help those of us today who have been teetering between hope and
despair since September 11.
Boston Globe: It's time to launch the ground war
"By default, Enduring Freedom has ended up being a
rerun of the lame U.S. military adventures of the 1990s," writes
Andrew Bacevich, a CAS professor of international relations, in the November
4 Boston Globe. "Yes, we own the skies -- this time over a nation
possessing conventional military capabilities roughly comparable to those
of Haiti. Yes, as the Pentagon's ubiquitous (albeit selectively edited)
videotapes show, when it comes to putting ordnance on targets, American
flyers can't be beat. But incessant claims that the latest round of bombing
-- now featuring B52s -- 'is the most intense yet' cannot conceal the
fact that the Pentagon remains wedded to illusions that the measured,
deliberate, and by now predictable use of air power offers the solution
to just about any military problem.
It is a timorous approach to war seemingly based on the conviction that
the exercise of restraint and the avoidance of risk offer the surest path
to success."
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Osama bin Laden's ire toward West rooted in past
While Islamic complaints against the West usually go back at least 1,000 years, to the Crusades, Osama bin Laden recently justified the September 11 terrorist attacks against America by referencing "more than 80 years of humiliation and disgrace." He refers to the Balfour Declaration of 84 years ago, in which Great Britain, the most powerful empire of the day, supported the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. The declaration became a modern pillar of Zionism's claim to Palestine. "The Balfour Declaration, for good or evil, clearly did complicate matters," says David Fromkin, a CAS professor of international relations and director of BU's Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, in an article in the November 4 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "Until the first World War, the Middle East, though subject to considerable foreign influence, was under mostly self-rule," he says. "After the war, the Allies moved in and cut up the region to suit themselves." Fromkin presciently titled his definitive study of this process A Peace to End All Peace, paraphrasing Woodrow Wilson's statement that World War I was "a war to end all wars." The region has been soaked in blood ever since.
9
November 2001
Boston University
Office of University Relations