[Peace-discuss] [Peace] Fwd: Does the "War on Terror" Still Exist. Controversial Speaker at 7pm TONIGHT in Follinger Auditorium!!! PLEASE ATTEND!!!

[David Green]

Rachel,

Based on what you've described here, your work at the WRC largely falls within 
the standard, elitist definitions of "worthy victims," that is victims that we 
can talk about in the U.S. without having to implicate our own government in 
their victimization. This is especially true, for example, for Burundi and 
Bosnia.

Personally, I don't see "women and war" as a worthy topic apart from war itself. 
And of course your agenda studiously avoids Israel and Palestine, while 
institutions on our campus and in our community ignore that daily violence that 
is done to all Palestinians, including women and children.

And it's interesting how you wish to draw boundaries and take this out of the 
public space into which you initiated your original message. That's consistent 
with the limitations of your form of advocacy--let's not disagree in public.

I guarantee to personally give you $100 if WRC lifts a finger to seriously 
address the issue of Israel and Palestine, and the involvement of local 
perpetrators, including faculty members.

David




________________________________
From: Rachel Storm <rachelstrm at gmail.com>
To: Teresa Ramos <tramosuiuc at gmail.com>
Cc: David Green <davegreen84 at yahoo.com>
Sent: Wed, October 13, 2010 4:57:45 PM
Subject: Re: [Peace] Fwd: Does the "War on Terror" Still Exist. Controversial 
Speaker at 7pm TONIGHT in Follinger Auditorium!!! PLEASE ATTEND!!!

Thank you, Teresa. 

David,

I appreciate and share your concerns. When you jump to the conclusion that the 
WRC hasn't--in its 1 and 1/2 years of existence--hosted any programs and events 
that challenged students to examine war, to look at the impact of war on women, 
or given students the platform to speak-out against war, then you clearly aren't 
familiar with our programming enough to be passing judgment. 

Just less than two weeks ago, the WRC's Writ n' Rhymed Poetry hosted an 
"Anti-War Poetry Open Mic Night"--ironically the day after Obama's 
declaration---which many noted and critiqued. One of the very first programs I 
did in the semester was a film showing of the documentary Peace x Peace: Women 
on the Frontlines, which is a project documenting not simply the ways in which 
women are victimized by war, but what women peace activists in the US, Burundi, 
Afghanistan, Burma, and Bosnia are doing to create peace in the context of 
war. We also have had articles up in our center for students to read about war 
and the normalization of sexual assault. As part of our Global Grrls in Focus 
Series, we'll also showing "Afghanistan: Captives of the Warlords"--and that's 
just naming a few. I just showed the film "The Response" on torture based 
entirely on the US Military tribunals. We have done numerous programs and had 
numerous conversations at our center on women and war, among other issues. And 
just to contextualize things---I was hired less than 14 months ago and this is 
only my third semester. Since being hired, I've single-handedly designed 
the majority of our programs and events (we've averaged 35 events a month), 
created our library and other resources, and tried my best to bring lots of 
important issues to the table.

That being said, I would agree that there can be never enough discussion on 
these issues. I plan to continue to bring various issues to the WRC and work 
with students to create connections between issues embedded in and presented by 
things like war known. If you'd like to make some more suggestions for programs 
and events for the Women's Resources Center, I ask that you do it constructively 
and contact me at my university e-mail: rstorm2 at illinois.edu.

Rachel


      
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