Thanks, Ken. I was wondering what to say about Fred's piece, which has been
rattling around in my head all day. You said it for me, perfectly. And to
Fred, as someone who knows your writing pretty well, I'd say that the voice
in this piece is clunky, flat. Imagine Camus' novels written without any
attempt at grace or wit. It takes tremendous courage to give up those
things, so dear to the writer's heart.
jd
On Sat, Jun 7, 2008 at 6:37 PM, Frederick Pollack <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kenneth Wolman" <
> [log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Saturday, June 07, 2008 4:14 PM
> Subject: Re: "Jihad"
>
>
>
> Frederick Pollack wrote:
>>
>>> Jihad
>>>
>>> When the prisoner learned who his visitor was, he refused to
>>> meet him. He saw no reason to talk to the father of the girl he had killed,
>>> and was not at all curious why he had come. To gloat, perhaps; the prisoner
>>> was ending the first year of his life term. He was adjusting, however, as
>>> much as one does, to prison. Strong but not tall, he had had to fight
>>> several men who wanted to make him their bitch; and had killed one of them,
>>> in such a way that his guilt, known to his fellow-convicts, could not be
>>> proved by the authorities. He had joined a gang, earned some degree of
>>> protection, and was beginning to bulk up from weightlifting. If the father
>>> had expected to find him raped and cowed, he would have been disappointed.
>>>
>>
>> I am fascinated and moved by this. Fred may demur but I don't think it
>> has anything to do with the specifics of the current fixation on Islam or
>> Muslim attacks on targets. It seems to me about obsession with The Other,
>> the Not Us or even finally Not Me. What's a Jihad but a holy war or
>> "struggle"? You can stage a holy war/struggle against anything you like.
>> Joe McCarthy had one of those going. So did the Weather Underground. Pick
>> your target or your villain and there's a holy war to cover it. Hell,
>> American terrorism IN Vietnam was Jihad, and it continues today in Iraq.
>> Everyone's got a cause, pardon my speech, but everyone's got a hard-on
>> about something.
>>
>> As members of a dying culture headed toward a dictatorship of the left or
>> the right, it's seems we have the learning curve of a bichon frise, except
>> the dog is a lot cuter. Funny that the first thing that occurred to me was
>> not Iraq but the murder almost 10 years ago of Matthew Shepard in Laramie,
>> Wyoming. Remarkable we can get all hot and bothered over a war overseas and
>> forget the wars at our own gates. James Byrd Jr. was dragged to death and
>> dismembered en route by being chained to the back of a car. Matthew Shepard
>> was beaten to death and crucified on a fence for presumed "homosexual
>> advances" to two Laramie locals. It took him five days to die.
>>
>> One aspect--the liberally-expected aspect--of the American jihad war is
>> summed up in a website from the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas:
>> http://www.godhatesfags.com. You can't make up stuff like this. I
>> learned of the church's leader, the pastor Fred Phelps, because in 2003 my
>> younger kid appeared in a Theater Department senior project at Goucher
>> College, a production of Moises Kaufman's *Laramie Project*. Phelps and his
>> gang of Bible-crucifiers showed up to picket Shepard's funeral. They were
>> going to picket the Goucher production, except they'd been to UM-College
>> Park some months before for an earlier production. The Goucher actors, all
>> graduating seniors, were pissed off that Phelps wouldn't honor them by
>> showing up to hurl invectives.
>>
>> "Jihad" makes me feel as though I'm looking at this "cause" from the point
>> of view of the "perp" as much as the victim's father. Fred could have
>> called it "Bonds" or "Symbiosis" but Jihad turns everything into what it is:
>> a cause, even if you're on the "right" side. It's not a nice feeling. I
>> imagine Dennis Shepard visiting his son's murderers in prison and while it's
>> hard to believe, some sort of indispensible relation can be established. So
>> much for "getting on with our lives" or my other favorite, "finding peace."
>> Right.
>>
>> As a footnote, this is the edited version of Dennis Shepard's statement to
>> the jury and to the second defendant, Aaron McKinney. It is the text of The
>> Laramie Project. It is, in the context of seeing it in a theater in the
>> round, calculated to emotionally devastate the audience, and it does so with
>> great power.
>>
>>>
>>> *NARRATOR:* Aaron McKinney was found guilty of felony murder which meant
>>> the jury could give him the death penalty. That evening, Judy and Dennis
>>> Shepard (parents of victim, Matthew Shepard) were approached by McKinney's
>>> defense team, who pled for their client's life. The prosecution indicated
>>> they would defer to the family's wishes as to whether or not to pursue the
>>> death penalty. The following morning, Dennis Shepard made a statement to the
>>> court. Here is some of what he said.
>>>
>>> *DENNIS SHEPARD:* My son Matthew did not look like a winner. He was
>>> rather uncoordinated and wore braces from the age of thirteen until the day
>>> he died. However, in his all too brief life he proved that he was a winner.
>>> On October 6, 1998 my son tried to show the world that he could win again.
>>> On October 12, 1998 my first born son and my hero, lost. On October 12, 1998
>>> my first born son and my hero, died, fifty days before his twenty-second
>>> birthday.
>>>
>>> I keep wondering the same thing that I did when I first saw him in the
>>> hospital. What would he have become. How could he have changed his piece of
>>> the world to make it better?
>>>
>>> Matt officially died in a hospital in Ft. Collins, Colorado. He actually
>>> died on the outskirts of Laramie, tied to a fence. You Mr. McKinney with
>>> your friend Mr. Henderson left him out there by himself, but he wasn't
>>> alone. There were his lifelong friends with him, friends that he had grown
>>> up with.
>>>
>>> You're probably wondering who these friends were. First he had the
>>> beautiful night sky and the same stars and moon that we used to see through
>>> a telescope. Then he had the daylight and the sun to shine on him. And
>>> through it all he was breathing in the scent of pine trees from the snowy
>>> range. He heard the wind, the ever present Wyoming wind, for the last time.
>>> He had one more friend with him, he had God. And I feel better knowing he
>>> wasn't alone.
>>>
>>> Matt's beating, hospitalization and funeral focused worldwide attention
>>> on hate. Good is coming out of evil. People have said enough is enough. I
>>> miss my son, but I am proud to be able to say that he is my son.
>>>
>>> Judy has been quoted as being against the death penalty. It has been
>>> stated that Matt was against the death penalty. Both of these statements are
>>> wrong. Matt believed that there were crimes and incidents that justified the
>>> death penalty. I too believe in the death penalty. I would like nothing
>>> better than to see you die Mr. McKinney. However this is the time to begin
>>> the healing process. To show mercy to someone who refused to show any mercy.
>>>
>>> Mr. McKinney, I am going to grant you life, as hard as it is for me to do
>>> so, because of Matthew. Every time you celebrate Christmas, a birthday, the
>>> Fourth of July remember that Matt isn't.
>>>
>>> Every time you wake up in your prison cell remember that you had the
>>> opportunity and the ability to stop your actions that night. You robbed me
>>> of something very precious and I will never forgive you for that. Mr.
>>> McKinney I give you life in the memory of one who no longer lives. May you
>>> have a long life and may you thank Matthew every day for it.
>>>
>>> Ken
>>
>>
>
> Dear Ken,
>
> Your sense of what I intended here is dead on. I was not primarily
> interested in current conflicts with militant/reactionary Islam. I borrowed
> the Moslem term because a) though many claim it means "spiritual struggle,"
> it has come to mean only sanctified war; b) every jihad in the latter sense
> invites a counter-jihad. Around 300 BCE the philosopher Meng-T'se (Mencius)
> said, If hate is met with hate it does not end. Both my characters are
> jihadis.
>
> Mr. Shepard's decency and thoughtfulness move me greatly. I don't know if
> I would have been capable of them. - Fred
>
--
Joseph Duemer
Professor of Humanities
Clarkson University
Weblog: sharpsand.net
|
