Okay, now I'm a little worried, but it's probably just paranoia on my part.
All throughout this whole blogging business I've taken great pains to separate the personal opinions on my blog from my professional career, even though the latter seeps into the former a good amount of the time. My students can probably testify that I've almost bent over backwards to accommodate -- no, welcome -- opposing viewpoints and have people decide for themselves. (Playing devil's advocate is also something I do well, without even presenting it as such.)
But my last post was probably the angriest one I've posted in a while. And despite previous posts explaining my ambivalence, I am still very deeply troubled about the results of the election, and it comes out in the classroom every now and then. I cannot imagine teaching an Anthropology class (or especially an Asian American Studies class) without engaging with it in some fashion.
The atmosphere here on my campus is, in any case, very tense, and when the wingnuts in the academe are already busy watching SF State -- well, maybe I should keep my mouth shut.
The point is that it is very easy for someone to print my posts out and demand that they be placed in my tenure file, and then I'll probably be toast. Or, even worse, deported. But there is nothing wrong with being motivated, even professionally, by a sense of outrage. I am convinced, in any case, that my behavior in the classroom remains accommodating and objective, and I will ensure that it stays that way.
Let me make something of a quick confession: I do understand, quite clearly, where evangelical Christians are coming from, mostly because I used to be one.
Yes, not only was I the youth coordinator at my church back in the Philippines, I even led my own Bible study group and had my own "disciples."
Yes, I used to firmly believe that abortion and homosexuality were sins, and that anyone who believed otherwise was hellbound.
Yes, I was held sway by Campus Crusade for Christ for about 4 years, up to the point that I would accost strangers in the street and ask them, "Have you heard of the Four Spiritual Laws?"
And this is precisely why I can understand where their sense of outrage is coming from -- and it is also why it pains me to see how Jesus's teachings could be so ignored, especially by people who profess to use him as an example for their lives.
(The part about voting against their own economic interests -- that part I still can't understand.)
You may think you hear the sound of furious backpedalling in the background, but you're not. So yes, any Bush supporters reading this: consider this as something of an apology for how I wrote my angry piece -- but not what I wrote.
What kind of school do you teach in, where pro-Palestinian students can attack and harass College Republicans, who were merely exercising their free speech rights, and get away with it? Where college instructors aspiring for tenure are forced to toe the party line and watch what they say, or forever be cast out into the dark?
I may be missing some context here 6000 miles away, so forgive me.
I first read about the Frontpagemag article in another blog - and thought of you.
Posted by: Paul on November 9, 2004 01:39 AMWhat kind of school do I teach in? One with a recent history of trouble regarding this: see SFSU's official summary of events, and The Nation's article on it. Here's Laurie Zoloth's original letter as well.
FWIW, here's SFSU's Golden Gate Xpress's take on what happened. I wasn't there, but this is a calmer recounting of the events, as you can see.
Posted by: the wily filipino on November 9, 2004 08:00 AMOops -- sorry, I disabled html in the comments. But you can google "Liza Featherstone" and "The Mideast War Breaks Out On Campus," to get the Nation article, and then "Xpress" and SFSU to find another take.
Thanks. I'll look it up.
Posted by: Paul on November 9, 2004 09:46 AMso, when and how did it all change? when you went from disciple leader on the corner to now?
Posted by: gura on November 9, 2004 10:00 AMI think you have failed to address these issues:
Who used the God card first anyway?
When these terrorists slammed into the WTC, didn't they killed dialog first?
Make no mistake, I now find Bush's rhetoric on Iraq loathsome after no WMD was found. I think Bush should stop that Iraq war quick, i.e., after bringing Iraq's bureaucracy and all back to normal.
Posted by: resty on November 9, 2004 04:34 PMResty: I totally see your point -- that the terrorists killed dialogue with those planes.
But they weren't Iraqis.