Addendum to Salman Rushdie, SB 1070 and Final Thoughts on Kansas City

After writing my blog of two days ago, regarding Mr. Rushdie's comments and relating my attitudes about being in this particular profession of International Education, several interesting things happened at the Conference I am presently attending in Kansas City:

1)  The following day, an award was presented to Dr. Zuhair Humadi, who is the Executive Director of the Higher Committee for Iraq Education.  Dr. Humadi, in his talk, referred to Mr. Rushdie's appearance as our plenary speaker.  Apparently, quite a large contingent of our Middle Eastern colleagues opted not to attend the conference this year, in protest of the plenary speaker.  Dr. Humadi stated that he thought that was unfortunate, and he chose to come, despite the choice of Rushdie as the plenary.  However, then he went on to detail exactly what I had said in my previous blog, regarding freedom of speech and responsibility.  Of course, he was much more articulate and eloquent, and, given his background as an Iraqi, I expect he appreciates freedom and freedom of speech much more than I. He spoke for several minutes about this issue, and I could feel the room growing uncomfortable, as these were the same people who had risen and given Salman Rushdie a standing ovation the day before.  I could feel that they were "conflicted".  He finished by saying "with freedom comes responsibility.  That's my opinion and I am choosing to exercise my freedom of speech."  I was relieved to see that people applauded for him when he said that.  He is the only one I wanted to stand for, however, I chickened out, because I would have been the only one standing.  Clearly, he is opposed to Mr. Rushdie's writings, but I was happy, also, that he opted to attend the conference, accept the award, and to speak, however briefly, about the one issue which had been bothering me for a few days.

2) That whole session was combined with a business meeting.  On each of our chairs was a copy of a motion, that had already passed, from NAFSA regarding Arizona's SB 1070.  NAFSA is protesting this law, and has passed a resolution stating that it will not hold any of its conferences or regional meetings in Arizona.

This is what I meant earlier when I stated that, in my profession, you are expected to think and believe a certain way. While I know I am not the sole person in that huge congregation that opposes a boycott of Arizona, I am definitely in a teeny minority.   I think this resolution is unfortunate; although our national conference is held the first week in June, and the only city in Arizona capable of handling what is normally a conference of 10,000 people, is Phoenix--a place nobody wants to be in June anyways.  But the regional conferences might have been held in Arizona.  Not anymore.  Arizona will suffer economically as a result of this law.  It will be interesting to see how it all pans out.

I can't imagine myself standing up and telling my colleagues that I disagree with their stand on SB 1070.  Since I don't advertise my blog to them, and since nobody really reads this blog anyways, they'll probably not know, although I suspect they may guess based upon my usual silence when all hell breaks loose about these issues.  I wonder if I would be run out on a rail, tortured, drawn and quartered, and then finally, fired from my job.  Better to keep my head down and do my paperwork.

3)  I've developed a cold and a nasty sore throat and it's putting me in a foul mood.  What can one expect, flying on airplanes, and then being exposed to over 7,000 people, and shaking most of their hands????

4)  I did enjoy my afternoon at the Nelson Atkins Museum, perusing mostly their European Art section.  The Nelson Atkins has, apparently, the finest collection of Asian Art in the U.S.  Sadly, my interests don't lie there, so I spent little time in the Asian/Oriental section and almost all of it in the European section.  They have some very nice Monets, and some great pointillism pieces--Pissaro and Seurat, as well as a few from the Dutch Masters, including Rembrandt and Hals.  I was pretty pleased with myself to be able to identify the Hals, Rembrandt and the Ruysdael, (thanks Giles, you little stud), but missed the Hobbema, calling it a Ruysdael until I saw the monniker--bummer.  If there had been a Cuyp, I could have picked it out it from miles away, as long as there was a cow in it.  The museum has an indescribably lovely "cafe" and it was so pleasant to have a sparkling water and a snack and sit in that sunny, big room, relaxing.  Also, there is a beautiful and interesting sculpture garden, and their grounds are quite stunning as well; so, on such a fantastic day such as this, I enjoyed wandering about outside after perusing some fine art.  KC turned out to be much better than I expected.  The museum area, the Plaza, and the Power and Light District are all worth seeing.