http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/doc/2009/02/05/toward-understanding-the-middle-east/ Same old blog, brand new place Sun, 29 Nov 2009 09:02:06 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/doc/2009/02/05/toward-understanding-the-middle-east/comment-page-1/#comment-129095 Stephen Lewis Mon, 09 Feb 2009 13:48:46 +0000 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/doc/2009/02/05/toward-understanding-the-middle-east/#comment-129095 PS. We indeed were at Cone Mills together. One day on the picket line, a female picket-er stepped across the curbside marking the "company-line" and was sand-bagged by Cone Mills private cops. When a few of us stepped across the line to help her, we in turn were tackled and dragged off to jail (later released without charges) by Greensboro police. Across time this seems light-weight, but it felt heavy enough at the time. The recurrence of such incidents led me to live a good part of my life abroad. But, I discovered, one seems to encounter know-nothing-ness and repression in most societies, although far less class inequality and class violence than in the US. PS. We indeed were at Cone Mills together. One day on the picket line, a female picket-er stepped across the curbside marking the “company-line” and was sand-bagged by Cone Mills private cops. When a few of us stepped across the line to help her, we in turn were tackled and dragged off to jail (later released without charges) by Greensboro police. Across time this seems light-weight, but it felt heavy enough at the time. The recurrence of such incidents led me to live a good part of my life abroad. But, I discovered, one seems to encounter know-nothing-ness and repression in most societies, although far less class inequality and class violence than in the US.

]]> http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/doc/2009/02/05/toward-understanding-the-middle-east/comment-page-1/#comment-129087 Stephen Lewis Mon, 09 Feb 2009 13:30:02 +0000 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/doc/2009/02/05/toward-understanding-the-middle-east/#comment-129087 Doc. We should clarify for readers that although we met at a Ku Klux Klan rally, neither of us was dressed in D.W.Griffith-derived pin-head hats and masks and white robes but in the no less ludicrous but far less politically objectionable garb of bell-bottoms and work shirts. Nor were we burning crosses. You were with a group of obstreperous hecklers and I was with a group of slightly more obstreperous hecklers. Love at first sight, as it were. Come to think of it ... just because we opposed the Klan doesn't mean we can't expropriate its titles. And, thus, "Grand Blogger" and "Wizard of VRM," I thank you for the kind mention on my first (of several planned) Middle East posts. Here is hoping that we and other like-minded types can keep the internet on the track of humanism, commonalities, acceptance and balancing of differences, and avoidance of war. I have my doubts some time. In the spirit of 4 decades of friendship and collegiality, your "Far Less Grand Blogger" and aspiring "Wizard of Infrastructure," SL Doc. We should clarify for readers that although we met at a Ku Klux Klan rally, neither of us was dressed in D.W.Griffith-derived pin-head hats and masks and white robes but in the no less ludicrous but far less politically objectionable garb of bell-bottoms and work shirts. Nor were we burning crosses. You were with a group of obstreperous hecklers and I was with a group of slightly more obstreperous hecklers. Love at first sight, as it were. Come to think of it … just because we opposed the Klan doesn’t mean we can’t expropriate its titles. And, thus, “Grand Blogger” and “Wizard of VRM,” I thank you for the kind mention on my first (of several planned) Middle East posts. Here is hoping that we and other like-minded types can keep the internet on the track of humanism, commonalities, acceptance and balancing of differences, and avoidance of war. I have my doubts some time. In the spirit of 4 decades of friendship and collegiality, your “Far Less Grand Blogger” and aspiring “Wizard of Infrastructure,” SL

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