Re: ACTA report fyi

From: Paul H.Dillon (illonph@pacbell.net)
Date: Wed Nov 28 2001 - 17:06:29 PST


Pedro,

In relation to your posting on the ACTA report, this item might interest
you:

Wasima Alikhan had just gotten home from her shift at a Las Vegas Wal-Mart
when she found out.
A national political group apparently is worried about her influence on the
American ethos.

"What?" she asked. "I'm just now taking off my shoes. I know nothing about
this. Who?"

An organization founded by the U.S. vice president's wife, Lynne Cheney, and
Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., is bothered by something Alikhan said after
Sept. 11: "Ignorance breeds hate."

The American Council of Trustees and Alumni is so bothered, in fact, that it
included Alikhan's statement as No. 49 on a list of 117 "morally ambivalent"
quotes in a report that questions the patriotism of America's university
professors.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/lv-other/2001/nov/28/512681091.htm
l

Paul H. Dillon

  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Dr. P. R. Portes
  To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
  Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2001 8:59 AM
  Subject: Fw: ACTA report fyi

  FYI, another item from the Internet Scout Report, a project of the
University of Wisconsin:

  "Defending Civilization: How Our Universities Are Failing America and What
Can Be Done About It" [.pdf]
  http://www.goacta.org/Reports/defciv.pdf

  Though short, this report from The American Council of Trustees and Alumni
(ACTA), a nonprofit co-founded by Lynne Cheney and Senator Joseph I.
Lieberman, has been getting quite a bit of media attention. The report is a
scathing condemnation of universities for being "the weak link in America's
response to the [September 11th] attack," a label earned in part because
faculty "invoked tolerance and diversity as antidotes to evil" and did not
discuss the "difference between good and evil." The report charges academia
with disseminating the message to "blame America first." ACTA states, "This
is not an argument for limiting free speech on college campuses. Indeed, the
robust exchange of ideas is essential to a free society. But it is equally
important -- and never more so than in these unsettling times -- to insist
that colleges and universities transmit our history and heritage to the next
  generation." The report concludes with an appendix of named and numbered
professors and organizations who are part of the "weak link." Anyone
interested in debates over the function of universities or the composition
of curricula will want to read this.



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