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•URGENT:
Support Job Security for College
Teachers
•MINIMUM
DEMANDS
•call
me
old-fashioned
•i
lend you my
name
•R-E-S-P-E-C-T
"make
the librarians our servants, fire hitler
in the library"
2/10/07
A
few weeks ago I noticed that one of my
fliers containing my essay,
"Washington
University of
Utopia,"
had been defaced, so I took it down,
posted a fresh copy, and kept the defaced
flier as a prop to be used in my courses,
as is my policy in such cases. A week
later, I returned to the same site
(outside Holmes Lounge), and noticed that
the replacement flier had been defaced in
almost exactly the same way.. I took this
down as well, and replaced it with a flier
of my "Minimum
Demands,"
entitled "Do the Right Thing." This has
not yet been defaced, to my knowledge, and
I have not seen any other defaced fliers.
Over all, the response of the Washington
University community has been
overwhelmingly positive and sympathetic to
my cause, and the cause of
Lecturer's
Policy Reform.
I have received a few crank calls, but no
hate mail, and much affirmation,
especially from students and alumni.
On
top of the first flier was written "make
the librarians our servants." On the
bottom was written "start with hitler in
the library." The second flier read "fire
hitler in the library," and contained a
marginal note, "Yes," next to my proposal
that the existing Focus Programs should be
expanded into a core
curriculum.
I
am not sure if this curious, anonymous
message is pro-Hitler or anti-Hitler, or
simply unhinged. I am not sure if it was
intended to be humorous or inflammatory,
personal or impersonal. Apparently it was
written by someone rather fond of our
freshman programs.
My
students tell me there is a reading room
in Olin Library with books about Hitler,
and perhaps some people are upset about
this. Perhaps the author thinks a staff
change at Olin is in order, and books
about Hitler and WWII do not belong in our
library. (Please see "Harris
Room")
Or
perhaps the author has seen the
Washington
University Cooperative Library
website,
and noticed that our Coop
Social Thought Reading
Group
read William Shirer's Rise and Fall of the
Third Reich last summer, on the
recommendation of Dr.
John Ikerd,
a speaker at the Coop
Earth Healing Month
series last year, who feels that every
American citizen should read this book,
lest we go down the path of fascism. The
reference to making the librarians our
servants could be a criticism of my
bibliographic method of teaching. I tell
all my students I am their bibliographic
assistant, as I was when I worked in
Penn's Van Pelt Library South Asia
Reference Room. Whenever a library patron
asked for help, I dropped what I was
doing, and never asked why the patron
wanted a certain book. "Make the
librarians our servants" could be an
endorsement of my neutral, bibilographic
teaching method! Yes, I am your servant,
and happy to serve.
Or
perhaps the author had seen the Coop
Library's Photo
Gallery,
with pictures of the Coop Librarians
cataloguing books, and is accusing me of
exploiting my servants. For the record, I
paid them generously from my own salary,
and I paid a Linux programmer (a former
student in need of a job) to set up our
Rochdale server. I paid a couple of needy
students to build the library bookshelves.
I purchased library supplies from my own
salary, and the Coop Library is housed in
my home, purchased with my own money, in
order to provide a privately owned,
neutral Washington
University
Cooperative
annex, not controlled by the University. I
felt this was necessary to stabilize the
Coop, to which I have been fully committed
from its inception. We are currently
considering other ways in which this
property could serve the needs of our
growing cooperative community network. One
scenario involves me moving out of my own
house and taking a cheap studio apartment
in the neighborhood, in order to be the
sympathetic landlord to a new Coop core
group. Another involves me renovating the
basement and moving down there, in order
to lease the entire top floor to the Coop.
I could afford to do this only if I retain
my salary and benefits next year. I am
most certainly not exploiting anyone, by
any stretch of the imagination, as my Coop
students testify.
Perhaps
I am the Hitler in the Library, who should
be fired. Perhaps this author endorses the
University's elimination of my position in
favor of someone with a different
ideological perspective, of some sort.
Perhaps the author thinks my house, named
"Cervantes," after my first cooperative
house at UCSB, and the author of Don
Quixote, is my little Reichstag on
Pershing Avenue. Okay, no problem. I am
Hitler. I have Hitler-nature. I am
Spartacus as well, and I am Buddha, with
Buddha-nature. So are we all. Everyone has
the potential to be a war criminal, and to
be a hero, and to be enlightened, and to
teach others the path of enlightenment.
Self-criticism is always healthy,
self-denial is not. I conclude one of my
lectures with a quotation from the comic
strip Pogo, "We have met the enemy and he
is us," a play on Julius Caesar's "We have
met the enemy, and he is ours." Please,
let's not take the path of hatred and
genocide, ever again. I always tell my
students I am okay with almost every
perspective except that of the Nazis, but
really, neo-Nazis, and similarly confused
people, such as the anonymous defacer of
my signs, are welcome in my classes. I
would like to talk you out of your
crackpot thinking, as a public
service.
For
discussion of good and evil, and American
fascism, please see Questions
About Religious Studies: Science Marches
On?
I include the following
questions:
"Agree
or Disagree:
William James is right: evil is an
essential part of our being. Those who
don't realize this will sooner or later
become the tools of those who
do."
"Some
people seem to be motivated by a desire
for power and dominion over others, in a
rational or irrational way. How do we
prevent these people from becoming
mussolinis? In a just world, mussolini and
hitler would have done no harm. How do we
build that world? How would your theory of
religion help to build such a
world?"
To
help us answer these questions, perhaps we
should study Hitler, in the Library.
Donations of books to our Coop Library are
always welcome, including Mein
Kampf, and The Rise and Fall of the
Third Reich, not yet part of our
growing collection. Let's make the
librarians our servants, and start with
hitler in the library! Let's
practice
free speech,
or risk losing that freedom.
NEO-CON
FASCIST PROPAGANDA
In
summer of 2004 I posted many signs to
attract students to my University College
Religious Studies and International
Affairs course, "Fundamentalisms
East and West."
One of them, with the heading
"fundaphobia, n. the irrational
fear of religious people," above the
course description, was defaced with the
words "NEO-CON FASCIST PROPAGANDA." I
pulled down the sign and I still use it as
a prop in my course, always good for
laughs, and a good way of making my point
that Ivory
Tower people are just as likely to be
prejudiced
as anyone from the country, the churches,
or the working class. In my courses, I
teach my students about classic
Fundamentalism, neo-fundamentalism, the
alliance of the latter with
neo-conservatives, and also fascist
propaganda. So I didn't really mind the
defacement of my sign, it meant I was
getting some attention, and stimulating
discussion of controversial and important
issues..
Something
strange occurred after I pulled down the
sign. When I returned to put up the next
wave of publicity (I kept rotating the
signs, so as to pitch the course to a very
diverse audience), I noticed that many
signs that had been taken down had been
posted again, so that the Mallinckrodt
bulletin board was covered with my fliers.
I did not do this. I suspect that the
Mallinckrodt proctor had observed the
defacement of my sign, and had also seen
me taking it down, by security camera.
Perhaps someone was afraid I would sue the
University over this.
Relax,
I have never sued anyone, and I am not
about to start now, except as a last
resort. Free speech should be protected
here, and that includes writing harmless
comments on fliers.
Let's
practice free speech, or risk losing
it.
CORRECTION:
The "Hitler Room" referred to in an
earlier version of this post may be a
reference to the Harris Reading Room,
which contains books about Hitler, the
Holocaust, and WWII, but not Mein
Kampf, which is located elsewhere in
our library. I never thought this reading
room was a "Hitler Room," but I apologize
to anyone who might have been offended. I
don't think the Harris Room, or Olin, was
really the target, but some of my students
thought it might be, which is why I
mentioned it. Most likely the defacement
was done by someone with a grudge against
me or a philosophical problem with what I
do.
It
is ironic that my idealistic, utopian,
somewhat tongue-in-cheek op-ed piece would
be so misunderstood. I hope nobody really
thinks I want Chancellor Wrighton, or
anybody else, to resign or be fired,
unless we "fire" ourselves, clasp hands as
equals, forgive each other, and renew our
community. I believe everybody who has
served this University loyally should
enjoy job security and benefits, and the
right of reassignment within the
University, and the honor and respect of
the community. Call
me old-fashioned,
if you will, or call me radical, but
please don't call me Hitler, on a power
trip.
Just
because I mentioned Chancellor Wrighton
and nobody else does not mean I have
anything against him. "The buck stops"
with him, that is his job. I think he,
like every other American University head
at this time, is overpaid, but I hear he
is very philanthropic with his money, as
am I, on a MUCH smaller scale. I am glad
more people now realize that whatever I
get from the University, the University
community gets back. I believe I am
underpaid for what I do. Even so, I am
asking only to keep what I have, a modest
salary, health insurance, and a shoestring
philanthropic budget. For myself, I only
want to leave this earth with an honorable
mention to my name. (Please see
Minimum
Demands).
(Please
see Anti-Harassment
Policies May Be
Abused)
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