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Oregon Daily Emerald
COMMENTARY
Editor in Chief:
Brad Schmidt
Managing Editor:
Jan Tobias Montry
Editorial Editor.
Travis Willse
Wednesday, November 5,2003
EDITORIAL
Knowledge
is best hope
for lessening
cultural gaps
As recent attacks in Iraq have set in the minds of Ameri
cans and, no doubt, of residents of the Middle East, an
abysmal mutual gap of understanding still plagues rela
tions between the Islamic world and the West. The history
of cultural conflict is lengthy:
In 1999, Arabs and Muslims called for the closure of
the Burger King in Maale Adumim, the largest Israeli set
tlement in the West Bank. When the Israeli franchisee re
fused to close shop, groups called for an international
boycott of the burger giant because the outlet was sited
on what the executive director of American Muslims for
Jerusalem dubbed "stolen land." (Israel seized the land
in 1967's Six-Day War.) The restaurant was closed on Sat
urdays, the Jewish Sabbath, and followed Jewish, but not
Muslim, dietary laws. Burger King Corp. shut down the
franchise later that year.
Paul Marshall, a senior fellow at Freedom House's Cen
ter for Religious Freedom, wrote in a Townhall.com guest
commentary that "One distinctive feature of Western ana
lysts is that terrorists' explicit goals are often ignored, and
instead their actions are misread as reactions to Israel, third
world poverty, or American unilateralism."
And, in 1997, Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a speaker
box of hyper-nationalism and intolerance, blasted "uneth
ical" Western interference in the so-called Islamic revolu
tion: "This ethical quagmire will ... engulf the present
Western civilization and wipe it out."
During a speech given to students at Georgetown Uni
versity just a few months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks,
former President Bill Clinton faulted certain Middle East
regimes for misperceptions about the West: "In the com
plex combustible mixture of a lot of these countries, a lot of
the governments allow people to go into the mosques and
demonize us, and demonize the West and demonize
Christianity and demonize Jews, because as long as they
do that, they think they're shifting the heat of popular dis
tress off of the governments."
As with many problems, from the personal to the
planetary, the essence of hashing out misunderstanding
is communication.
Clinton agrees.
"We need to do a better job of getting the facts out," he
said in the same Georgetown speech. "Most Muslims in the
Middle East, I guarantee you, don't know (that) the last
time we used our military power was to protect poor Mus
lims in Bosnia and Kosovo."
But citing simple communication and open arms as a
panacea has all the effectiveness of a public service an
nouncement on C-SPAN 2; anyone who thinks differ
ently is shortsighted or has a rhetorically indefensible
bone to pick.
Even in the modern world of the superconnected and
the media-aware, most international communication flows
through several major mass media outlets. The relative
merits of this arrangement aside, the soundbyte-oriented
format of cable news — CNN and Al-Jazeera alike — is ill
suited to conveying subtleties necessary for cultural appre
ciation. And with neither the Israel-Palestine conflict nor
the Iraqi occupation showing signs of sunny news, even
widely accepted cultural tolerance often seems too bullish
a goal.
Rather than propose a comprehensive policy solution —
which is clearly outside the scope of this editorial, anyway
— we suggest a more microcosmic response: Learn more
about Islamic language and idea and the context of those
ideas. Read through Omar Khayyam's "Rubaiyat," or
thumb through "A Thousand and One Nights." If you're
reading this and you're a resident of the Middle East, read
through Shakespeare's "Hamlet" or Adam Smith's "Wealth
of Nations."
This is no end in itself, and almost certainly won't in it
self stop catastrophic cultural conflict. But knowledge is a
place to start.
As James Madison sagely observed, "The advancement
and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true
liberty."
The angry peacemaker
Joseph Bechard
Cultural obstetrician
Tonight is country music's biggest night.
Millions of country music fans will tune
into the Country Music Awards on CBS
hoping to see their favorite artists honored
for the great work they do.
One of the more interesting stories of
this year's awards ceremony is that of ris
ing star Toby Keith. This year has been a
good one for the flag-waving rootin'
tootin' cowboy tough-guy.
Keith will gross $45 million in 2003, and
he has been nominated for seven CMAs —
more than any other artist this year. He
could possibly earn awards for Entertainer
of the Year, Male Vocalist of the Year, Single
of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the
Year, Vocal Event of the Year and Music
Video of the Year, if anyone really cares.
But his success hasn't come without
controversy. In response to the Sept. 11
terrorist attacks, Keith penned what
many critics have called an ignorant
piece of nationalistic rubbish, and others
have hailed as the greatest American
song since the Star-Spangled Banner.
Titled "Courtesy of the Red, White and
Blue (The Angry American)" the song fea
tures such poignant lyrics as: "And it'll feel
like the whole wide world / Is rainin' down
on you / Brought to you courtesy / Of the
Red, White and Blue / Oh justice will be
served / And the battle will rage / This big
dog will fight / When you rattle his cage /
And you'll be sorry that you messed with /
The U. S. of A. / 'Cause we'll put a boot in
your ass / It's the American way."
As for those of us who view bellicose
and brazen ignorance as a negative quality,
we fall on one side of the Toby Keith camp.
The other side loves everything the Ok
lahoman son-of-a-Korean-War-veteran
does. If he charged admission to view his
bowel movements before he flushed
them, he would have fans lining up in his
neighborhood.
I can't help but wonder what percentage
of Americans think like Keith. Because Eu
gene is a cultural vacuum entirely cut off
from the rest of the country, it's hard to get
a sense of the rest of the nation's feelings
about Toby Keith's brand of logic.
Keith's viewpoints have sometimes cost
ed him valuable exposure. ABC removed
him from its Fourth of July special last year
when, according to Keith, Peter Jennings
said he wouldn't allow that type of angry,
incendiary music on his show.
Conservative talking heads — especially
the nitwits at the Media Research Center —
quickly pounced on ABC, labeling it a bas
tion of liberal news bias. Even Democratic
Eric Layton Illustrator
Senator Zell Miller of Georgia, who recently
published a book criticizing his own politi
cal party, joined in lambasting Jennings. Not
only did he participate in Keith's "Send Your
Old Boots to Peter Jennings Campaign" last
year, he actually delivered a message on the
Senate floor asking to add the lyrics of
"Courtesy" and two other "great patriotic
song(s) from my generation" to the Con
gressional Record.
Censoring any artist no matter what the
viewpoint is hardly an answer. Keith has a
right to voice these opinions and his fans
have the right to hear them, but I still can't
understand why Keith is so damn popular.
He is now becoming a powerful force in
the cultural war taking place in the United
States. As the Bush administration looks des
perately for a human lightning rod to rally
Americans behind its impossible and mis
guided war on terrorism, we're going to see a
lot more of big stars like Keith. And he is be
coming evermore, a symbol of American
ism to be exploited by those who want to
capitalize on the new American sentiments
created by the terrorist attacks.
In 2003 alone, the White House invited
Keith to open for George W. Bush at two of
his addresses to troops and their families.
Wouldn't you invite Toby Keith to your
party if he sang songs about you like he
does Bush? In "It's All Good," Keith, after
singing about the fears of living in a world
where you can't open your mailbox or take
a plane, says: "I think I'm gonna let the
president / Save this ol' world tonight."
Damn Bush, don't let this one slip through
your fingers. He's the cultural answer to
your "Bring it on" comment.
After Keith's performance at MacDill Air
Force Base, Bush thanked him "for coming
and providing your talents today in sup
port of — support of our efforts to make
the world a more peaceful place." Yup, he,
just like Bush, is a man of peace.
Another song on Keith's "Unleashed"
LP, titled "Beer For My Horses," is up for
four CMAs and illustrates the previous
point perfectly. In this duet with country
music giant Willie Nelson, the lyrics get
nearly asinine enough to induce rampant,
uncontrolled vomiting.
"Grandpappy told my pappy, back in
my day, son / A man had to answer for the
wicked that he done / Take all the rope in
Texas / Find a tall oak tree, round up all
them bad boys / Hang them high in the
street for all the people to see that / ... It's
time the long arm of the law put a few
more in the ground / Send 'em all to their
maker and he'll settle 'em down."
Yes, that's my idea of peace and justice,
and I'd love to see Toby and his boys out
there exacting it for us.
Just yesterday Keith's new album
"Shock'N Y'all" was officially released. It
features even more of the insidious jingo
ism and bravado for which we have come
to know and love him.
Now we're sure to see even more of Keith
as he promotes the new LP. He just appeared
on 60 Minutes II and he'll perform during
the CMAs. On top of that, he also has dates
lined up for early November on Jimmy Kim
mel Live, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,
The Sharon Osbourne Show and several
other news programs.
He also recently did some new ads for
Ford trucks, and signed with Coors Brew
ing Company and Mr. Coffee.
But perhaps the most repulsive perform
ance of Keith's this year will come on
Thanksgiving Day. When we're all gathered
with our friends and family, celebrating the
interdependence of man and remembering
the costs of freedom, Keith will play the half
time show of the Dallas Cowboys' Thanks
giving Day game For the show, he will play a
medley with excerpts from "Beer For My
Horses," "Courtesy of The Red, White and
Blue" and "How Do You Like Me Now."
Now what's wrong with that picture?
Contact the columnist
at joebechard@dailyemerald.com.
His opinions do not necessarily
represent those of the Emerald.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Ensure accuracy in
voting system
Lane County Elections has followed the
mandated reform (and flawed lesser-of
evils theory) by choosing a new optical
scan vote-counting system. Presumably
there is a physical record (pencil mark on
paper ballot), but the virtual tally will be
much easier to rig than with a punch-card
system.
Some questions need answers: Is the
software proprietary? Will Lane County
Elections have access to the code? Will au
dits or recounts account for ballot input
and vote tally, but not the black box in be
tween? Will anyone outside of elections
have access to the software, such as politi
cal oversight or media investigation? Or
only the voting machine corporation?
Will elections allow the press to audit
both the vote tally and the software data
after every election? If the company that
makes the machines has the sole access to
the software, and since it is a constitutional
requirement to hold transparent elections,
is this not by definition an illegal voting
system?
Why not choose the system (hand
counting paper ballots) with the lowest er
ror rate, the least risk of rigging, the most
honest and transparent process and which
tabulates the votes in a few hours?
Is it typical or expedient to avoid a re
count or audit of vote-counting procedure,
especially after an actual election, rather
than merely pre-testing mock-ups? (As ev
idenced in the 2000 coup with the sup
pression of any true recount in a contest
ed election where the spectacular and
primary issue was exactly how many votes
were cast in Florida.)
Bernard Nickerson
Eugene