Yes, sir, that's the life of an organizer: (A) you invite an intellectual, and you get a _storm_ of criticism from non-organizers who can't stand him; (B) you don't invite an intellectual, and you get a _deluge_ of protests against "censorship" from non-organizers who want him (or want to use him to club your head); (C) you invite an intellectual who does not share your political persuasion but knows a lot about an issue of the moment, and, lo and behold, she turns on _you_, in the midst of her lecture that _you_ sponsored, and red-baits _you_.
(B) has yet to happen to me personally, but (A) (as explained in <http://squawk.ca/lbo-talk/0204/1053.html>) and (C) have. (C) is more galling than (A), as you can imagine.
Coming back to Rabbi Lerner, I don't regret having supported some of his actions in the past, but, really, the good Rabbi needs to rein in his ego and _at least_ take back the charge of anti-Semitism. That's a fighting word. The initial letter of protest against ANSWER included the following statement:
****** Rabbi Lerner said, "I'm honored that some people wanted me to speak, and dismayed that the specific reason I'm not allowed to speak is my criticism of the anti-Israel bias of A.N.S.W.E.R. But I believe that the message of peace is far more pressing at the moment than the message of fighting the anti-Semitism among some of the march's organizers." *****
It is obvious, though, that he didn't consider "the message of peace" pressing enough to ask himself whether it wasn't "the wrong fight to have at the wrong time," to borrow Doug's phrase.
What a weapon of mass distraction!
At 11:00 AM -0500 2/12/03, Max B. Sawicky wrote:
>two no-name rabbis
Those are fighting words, too, if Rabbis David Cooper and Pam Frydman-Baugh ever happen on your post. :-0 -- Yoshie
* Calendar of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://solidarity.igc.org/>