My letter to the Baltimore Sun RE Politically incorrect statues provide teachable moments by Alexander E. Hooke

Swans Reflecting Elephants, 1937 by Salvador Dali

Baltimore, MD -- 6/10/15 -- Confederate Generals Robert E. Lee (right) and Stonewall Jackson are depicted on horseback in a monument near the Baltimore Museum of Art. (Jerry Jackson/Baltimore Sun)

Artists Rebuild Destroyed Buddha Statues With Ghostly 3D Projection

RE Politically incorrect statues provide teachable moments
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-confederate-lessons-20151027-story.html

Dear Editor,

I applaud and totally agree with the very wise philosophy professor at Stevenson University, Alexander E. Hooke's thought provoking column "Politically incorrect statues provide teachable moments"

I like how Hooke calmly connects the dots between Salvidore Dali, Buddhist Statues, and Confederate symbols.  But I think he missed one crucial point... we human beings are not perfect. None of us. Every individual is a unique blend of good, bad and indifferent.

Public art depicting a hero is made to celebrate what many at the time see as someone to celebrate.  This is who we are, we have a complicated past created by real people, products of their time, who thought they were doing the right and necessary thing. Sometimes our predecessors were very right, sometimes they weren't. 

I'd rather live in a world that appreciates, generates and preserves art and artifacts, than a world where art and artifacts are pulverized by political and/or religious campaigners and task forces set up to decide which elements of our collective history and art should be condemned and destroyed figuratively or literally.

I'd rather live in a world where we the people are encouraged to stop and think. To individually reassess our own assumptions: A world where we are free to educate ourselves and maybe even carefully explore difficult conversations and topics. A world where there are teachable moments.  A world with more diplomacy- and less war.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

Columbia University opens Center for Palestine Studies- the first devoted to the study of Palestine and Palestinians at an academic institution in USA

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=321808

Columbia University opens Center for Palestine Studies

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Columbia University inaugurated the Center for Palestine Studies on Thursday, officially launching its first year of public programming with a screening of Palestinian director Michel Khleifi's Zindeeq, the university said.

Founded in January 2010, the center is the first devoted to the study of Palestine and Palestinians at an academic institution in the US. The university's website said the center's mission is to promote the academic study of Palestine "in all its forms and to offer a dedicated site for sustained interchanges among scholars and students."

The center will also promote scholarship and facilitate exchanges with scholars, students, and academic institutions in the West Bank and Gaza, and among refugees and others in the Palestinian diaspora and advance the production and circulation of knowledge of Palestinian history, culture, society, and politics in diverse scholarly fields, including history, literary studies, the social sciences, religion, philosophy, law, archaeology, the arts, and architecture.

Forming part of the university's Middle East Institute, the center will serve as an institutional home at Columbia for faculty, post-doctoral researchers, and students working on Palestine and Palestinian studies.

"The Center is actively developing contacts with scholars and other institutions for the purposes of academic cooperation. Through its diverse activities, the Center for Palestine Studies will have a national and global reach. Enhancements to the curriculum, library and faculty at Columbia will translate into new resources to advance the academic study of Palestine and Palestinians throughout the United States and the world," the website read.

The university said the center honored the scholarly legacy of Edward Said, who taught at Columbia for 40 yeas. "Edward Said's legacy continues to draw prominent scholars of Palestine to the university. Columbia annually hosts the prestigious Said Lectures, which bring distinguished international figures to the campus."