Oct. 11 Teach-In A Success

To the Editors:

I want to thank all who participated in Oct. 11’s day of alternative education, particularly those professors who came and shared their knowledge and opinions and time, and those organizers who made it all possible, but also everyone who set aside their normal academic schedule.
If we cannot bend our routines here to face the challenges of current world, national and local affairs, then perhaps we should ask ourselves what the value of our academic endeavors is. Now, as we continue to plough through another semester full of deadlines and busy days and late nights, I challenge us all to continue learning and thinking and discussing, and most of all acting in whatever ways we can to positively affect the current crisis. To that end I would like to pose a few earnest questions for consideration, research and debate among students, faculty and the whole Oberlin community.
What are the possible policy alternatives to the current military campaign? What are the possible policy alternatives to current American support for the Northern Alliance, who may present no greater prospect for peace, human rights or democracy than the Taliban regime the U.S. wants to help them overthrow? What democratic tendencies exist in Afghan society right now? What are their political prospects in the forseeable future? Can Westerners help to strengthen these tendencies, and if so, how? What might be the future of Pakistan? Is there a real threat, for example, of Islamic fundmentalists taking power and laying their hands on Pakistan’s nuclear weapons? Might there be a real threat of nuclear warfare on the horizon, or is this an unfounded fear? How can activists best articulate challenges to the false dichotomy of West(ern hegemony) vs. Islam(ic fundamentalism), or “with us or with the terrorists?”
To these questions and more we should be turning our attention in the days ahead, no matter how “busy” we are.

p.s. — please do reply with any information, hunches, ideas, contentions.

–Nathan Tobin
College junior