return of the blacklist

[Doug Millison]

http://www.counterpunch.org/dprice2.html

"[...] The ACTA recently produced a 38 page pamphlet that in many ways
reads like a prototype of a neo-McCarthyist blacklist for our new hot war
(see: http://www.goacta.org/Reports/defciv.pdf). The pamphlet, "Defending
Civilization: How our Universities Are Failing America and What Can Be Done
About It" compiles 117 quotes from respected American academicians critical
of current US policies. These quotes range from gentle questions concerning
the propriety of specific actions, to radical critiques of American
policies and practices, but theses quotes lead the ACTA to make the charge
that "college and university faculty have been the weak link in America's
response to the attack" of September 11th.

ACTA Chairwoman Emeritus and national "Second Lady", Lynne Cheney, is
quoted on the pamphlet's cover endorsing the need for Americans to study
the past-though the envisioned past she'd have us study is clearly
compartmentalized in ways that serve hegemonic interpretations of the
current crisis. Cheney tells us that "living in liberty is such a precious
thing" as the pamphlet compiles a list of Americans whose liberties the
ACTA would like to see reduced. But Republicans like Cheney are not alone
to blame for this pamphlet designed to threaten those who would actually
practice academic freedom. Besides Cheney the remaining members of the ACTA
governing board are two of Cheney's NEH colleagues (Jerry Martin & Anne
Neal) and two conservative Democrats Joseph Lieberman and Richard Lamm.

The pamphlet has a few tantalizingly strident quotes such as the widely
publicized (and later apologized for) quote by University of New Mexico
historian, Richard Berthold that "anyone who can blow up the Pentagon gets
my vote", but most of the quotes are moderate in their view and tenor. In
fact, one of the remarkable things about this pamphlet is how relatively
tame or even common-sensical many of the quotes are. For example CCNY
sophomore Nuriel Heckler's observation that "we don't feel military action
will stop terrorism, but it will lead to racism and hate," or Jesse
Jackson's statement that we should "build bridges and relationships, not
simply bombs and walls." To the ACTA such moderate suggestions are too
much, and must be shouted down. [...] "