November 22, 2003

It was after lunch. I was taking my tray to the dishroom window. Charley (I never knew his last name.) had a radio playing in the dishroom and he said to me, The president's been shot in Dallas. I was teaching at a prep school (Colorado Academy) outside Denver while I was trying to sort out my path in life. The headmaster convened an assembly and mumbled something about right-wing extremists as he dismissed school for the remainder of the day on that Friday. The rest of the day and evening seemed eerie. I remember going out to dinner and the restaurant—open because the owner was in shock—was nearly empty and quiet, whispers, really. Only the NFL was impervious to propriety as the games that Sunday were played by edict of Commissioner Pete Rozelle.

I have read a lot of reflections about November 22, 1963, forty years later. None of them were satisfying. It is hard to imagine that JFK would be 86 years old if he had survived. For a brief time, John Kennedy touched a lot of people. I say to my students that a president today could never say, Ask not..., but ask.... I remember as I watched my daughter Erica board the plane that would take her (ultimately) around the world to Uzbekistan as a Peace Corps Volunteer. I remember how proud I was—on a holiday visit during her second year in Central Asia—listening to her dicker with a group of Uzbek cab drivers. A lot of banter and laughter as she dismissed this fare and that. Ultimately, Erica secured two cabs for us and our luggage at a fare that she thought was appropriate. Erica touched a lot of lives in Uzbekistan. JFK would have been proud. I was. That is my memory of JFK on November 22, 2003. If this be (fair & balanced) nostalgia, so be it.

What! People In This Country Ignorant Of The Outside World?

The Strategic Task Force On Education Abroad headed by former Secretary of Education Richard Riley and former Senator Paul Simon (D-IL) finds national ignorance about the world outside the U. S. is a threat to national security. And we have a president who lacks curiosity about the world in which he lives. The irony is that I read this report in the online version of the Singapore Press. Go figure. If this be (fair & balanced) pessimism, so be it.

[x Straits Times]
NOV 21, 2003
Americans ignorant of outside world: US panel

WASHINGTON - A panel of prominent US politicians and educators has decried what it called 'America's ignorance of the outside world', arguing that the reluctance to study foreign civilisations could eventually become a threat to national security.

The scathing report produced by the Strategic Task Force on Education Abroad marked the first attempt to question Americans' ability to fully grasp the meaning of events abroad since the Sept 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

'We strongly believe that the events of Sept 11 constituted a wake-up call, a warning that America's ignorance of the world is now a national liability,' the task force headed by former education secretary Richard Riley and former US senator Paul Simon said on Tuesday.

The report points out that the gap separating Americans from the rest of the world became especially evident on that tragic day when most of them were forced to ask themselves the confused questions, 'Where did this come from?' and 'How could anyone want to do this to us?'

The answer is that Americans are ignorant about the Middle East and suffer from 'a pervasive lack of knowledge' about the world, task force members said. \-- AFP

Copyright © 2003 Singapore Press Holdings