Valuable Lessons
Today I made use of the lesson that even individuals who find themselves politically or racially polarized can manage to jointly make statements that benefit important causes. In the wake of the sexual assault of CBS foreign correspondent Lara Logan in Egypt, we see a resurgence of sentiment demonizing the Middle East. Sweeping generalizations that suggest these countries to be "barbaric" are again widespread with little concern for the male and female inhabitants of this area who celebrate peace and nonviolence. On Twitter, seeing so many tweets describing the general populace of Egypt as "animals", I felt compelled to take some kind of positive action.
I hesitated to make statements directly against the sometimes racist comments of agitators given an awareness of the obvious tropes of any conversation for which my corollary might be that the Middle East in its entirety could not rationally be responsible for inspiring so much hatred from so many Americans. Some of that hatred had to have existed before the last ten years of strife and political maneuvering. Before former President Bush ever referred to the area as an "Axis of Evil" many of these men and women who paint the internet with hate speech had to harbor a suggestibility that whole nations could and should be condemned if they don't share American interests. Many individual citizens in numerous other countries disagree with American policies and are never singled out as "evil". At most, they may simply be regarded as our global competitors, even when their social customs or language are significantly different. Of course there are plenty of reasons why our considerations of the Middle East operate on mitigating circumstances that have little or nothing to do with religious identity or the barrier of a language unique to our own. None of these so-called circumstances, however, would apply to an effective approach to today'sissue of defraying concentration on the geography of this crime of sexual assault.
It is inconsequential where in the world sexual assault happens. It is only important that every minute of every day it persists globally. It should not be a politically polarizing issue. Regardless of party affiliation, none among us should support the persistence of sexual violence anywhere. In response to those who chose to characterize Egyptians as "barbarians" and "animals", I respond with statements about the global prevalence of rape, including right here in the United States. Do we so soon forget last year's news story about the gang rape of a high school student in southern California at a Homecoming dance? I look to Peter Daou as a stirring resource in efforts to educate and politicize individuals on the subject of global violence against women. Within his blog one encounters many informative passages and statistics including the fact that right here in the US in 2007 nearly a quarter of a million women reported being sexually assaulted.
My tweets singled out individuals with the power to reach a broader audience, most notably a program director of a popular radio station. Those of us with the power to speak should not remain silent. Those of us with the power to influence should speak responsibly. When Michael Rodriguez of alternative rock station 101 in New York city referred to Egyptians as animals, I found the perfect sounding board for my efforts to help widen awareness of violence against women. As expected, when I responded to his comments he immediately referenced the events of 2001 as sufficient reason to blanket the entirety of the Middle Eastern region in our unified American hatred. He used arguments of ill-spent funds abroad in direct correlation to starvation of children in the US. I decided against responding to this often used syllogism to sway conjecture on tolerance in favor of implementing anything but military force in dealing with Middle Eastern nations, even our allies. Neither our foreign spending in the region nor domestic occurrences of malnutrition among children have anything to do with my purpose of addressing the insidious nature of sexual violence globally.
As is inevitable in these internet dust ups, those we choose to engage may resort to leveling personal attacks as opposed to addressing the simple facts. It is important not to allow oneself to be drawn in to the reflex of name-calling or unfounded accusations. After all, what rational reason would there be to internalize or react negatively to the inconclusive opinions of a stranger who knows nothing of your character beyond the extremely abbreviated insight of a tweet? It is instead imperative to use the moment to enlighten oneself and any who may bear witness to it. Instead of allowing our exchange to deteriorate as so many do into useless mutual flaming, I used Mr. Rodriguez's own words as the foundation of my argument. It is more important to view this horrendous crime against Lara Logan as an unfortunate and undesirable opportunity to enlighten the world. Let every victim stand as a reminder that sexual violence cannot be ignored. I implemented the trending topic #Enough and used it in conjunction with what I hoped were well-constructed statements denouncing global sexual violence. Some of these include the following:
"Every man bears relation to a woman who has suffered this atrocity. To claim ignorance is to be complicit to the crime of silence. #Enough"
"We can choose to use incendiary language to insult anad alienate or we can unite against the abominations of violence and hate rhetoric. #Enough"
"Why use this to perpetuate the idea of otherness in referencing the Middle East as though rape were not a crime seen daily around the globe? Use this to educate, extending awareness that sexual violence is abhorent. Stand up. Make it stop. #Enough"
In turn I managed to get Mr. @mikealrock101 to expound upon his preliminary message of:
"A bunch of animals over there in #egypt http://bit.ly/eAM3o7 Makes me sick what they did to this poor lady Lara Logan reporter for CBS news"
helping it to evolve into the less hateful and more helpful message of:
"Rape is heinous ANYWHERE! Got it, in the US, Egypt,, Russia, WHEREVER." - @mikealtrock101 #Enough"
As this served as the end of the conversation, I thanked Mr. Rodriguez for helping to illuminate the subject of global sexual violence extending my genuine appreciation. We can't always change the minds of people who are confident in the power of their hatred of so-called "others" or "foreigners". We can however reach out and convince friends, neighbors and even those whose voices may rise against our own in social dissent, that our collective horror in response to an act of violence such as rape, transcends political or religious ideology. Together we can say, Make noise! Use every forum to stand up and be counted as someone who abhors global sexual violence. #Enough
I hesitated to make statements directly against the sometimes racist comments of agitators given an awareness of the obvious tropes of any conversation for which my corollary might be that the Middle East in its entirety could not rationally be responsible for inspiring so much hatred from so many Americans. Some of that hatred had to have existed before the last ten years of strife and political maneuvering. Before former President Bush ever referred to the area as an "Axis of Evil" many of these men and women who paint the internet with hate speech had to harbor a suggestibility that whole nations could and should be condemned if they don't share American interests. Many individual citizens in numerous other countries disagree with American policies and are never singled out as "evil". At most, they may simply be regarded as our global competitors, even when their social customs or language are significantly different. Of course there are plenty of reasons why our considerations of the Middle East operate on mitigating circumstances that have little or nothing to do with religious identity or the barrier of a language unique to our own. None of these so-called circumstances, however, would apply to an effective approach to today'sissue of defraying concentration on the geography of this crime of sexual assault.
It is inconsequential where in the world sexual assault happens. It is only important that every minute of every day it persists globally. It should not be a politically polarizing issue. Regardless of party affiliation, none among us should support the persistence of sexual violence anywhere. In response to those who chose to characterize Egyptians as "barbarians" and "animals", I respond with statements about the global prevalence of rape, including right here in the United States. Do we so soon forget last year's news story about the gang rape of a high school student in southern California at a Homecoming dance? I look to Peter Daou as a stirring resource in efforts to educate and politicize individuals on the subject of global violence against women. Within his blog one encounters many informative passages and statistics including the fact that right here in the US in 2007 nearly a quarter of a million women reported being sexually assaulted.
My tweets singled out individuals with the power to reach a broader audience, most notably a program director of a popular radio station. Those of us with the power to speak should not remain silent. Those of us with the power to influence should speak responsibly. When Michael Rodriguez of alternative rock station 101 in New York city referred to Egyptians as animals, I found the perfect sounding board for my efforts to help widen awareness of violence against women. As expected, when I responded to his comments he immediately referenced the events of 2001 as sufficient reason to blanket the entirety of the Middle Eastern region in our unified American hatred. He used arguments of ill-spent funds abroad in direct correlation to starvation of children in the US. I decided against responding to this often used syllogism to sway conjecture on tolerance in favor of implementing anything but military force in dealing with Middle Eastern nations, even our allies. Neither our foreign spending in the region nor domestic occurrences of malnutrition among children have anything to do with my purpose of addressing the insidious nature of sexual violence globally.
As is inevitable in these internet dust ups, those we choose to engage may resort to leveling personal attacks as opposed to addressing the simple facts. It is important not to allow oneself to be drawn in to the reflex of name-calling or unfounded accusations. After all, what rational reason would there be to internalize or react negatively to the inconclusive opinions of a stranger who knows nothing of your character beyond the extremely abbreviated insight of a tweet? It is instead imperative to use the moment to enlighten oneself and any who may bear witness to it. Instead of allowing our exchange to deteriorate as so many do into useless mutual flaming, I used Mr. Rodriguez's own words as the foundation of my argument. It is more important to view this horrendous crime against Lara Logan as an unfortunate and undesirable opportunity to enlighten the world. Let every victim stand as a reminder that sexual violence cannot be ignored. I implemented the trending topic #Enough and used it in conjunction with what I hoped were well-constructed statements denouncing global sexual violence. Some of these include the following:
"Every man bears relation to a woman who has suffered this atrocity. To claim ignorance is to be complicit to the crime of silence. #Enough"
"We can choose to use incendiary language to insult anad alienate or we can unite against the abominations of violence and hate rhetoric. #Enough"
"Why use this to perpetuate the idea of otherness in referencing the Middle East as though rape were not a crime seen daily around the globe? Use this to educate, extending awareness that sexual violence is abhorent. Stand up. Make it stop. #Enough"
In turn I managed to get Mr. @mikealrock101 to expound upon his preliminary message of:
"A bunch of animals over there in #egypt http://bit.ly/eAM3o7 Makes me sick what they did to this poor lady Lara Logan reporter for CBS news"
helping it to evolve into the less hateful and more helpful message of:
"Rape is heinous ANYWHERE! Got it, in the US, Egypt,, Russia, WHEREVER." - @mikealtrock101 #Enough"
As this served as the end of the conversation, I thanked Mr. Rodriguez for helping to illuminate the subject of global sexual violence extending my genuine appreciation. We can't always change the minds of people who are confident in the power of their hatred of so-called "others" or "foreigners". We can however reach out and convince friends, neighbors and even those whose voices may rise against our own in social dissent, that our collective horror in response to an act of violence such as rape, transcends political or religious ideology. Together we can say, Make noise! Use every forum to stand up and be counted as someone who abhors global sexual violence. #Enough