RE: A Message from George....

["Maryanne Stroud Gabbani" <maryanne@ratbusters.net>]

Thank you, Kat, for passing that on. Columbia is a very special school and
I'm proud to be bankrupt to send my kids there. <G> Seriously, though if
there were more places like that, the world would be much better.

Maryanne Stroud Gabbani
Cairo, Egypt
maryanne@ratbusters.net
www.ratbusters.net



We are fearful as we see the full horror of how distorted, how
perverse, human motivation and action can become.  And we must be
on guard that we do not in turn also become instruments of hatred
or captives of a self-delusion that prevents our acknowledging
how others view us and thereby leads us into counterproductive
actions.

In particular for us who are members of the larger Columbia
family, we must be sure to maintain and strengthen the core
values that characterize our common life.  We are a community
that encompasses and affirms diversity.  We come from every
ethnic and religious tradition in this country and from many of
the nations around the globe.  We must continue to reach out
across lines that mark unbridgeable divisions in much of the
world.  At precisely the time when the march of events threatens
to drive us apart and turn us against each other, we must come
together.  We must rise to the challenge of rebuilding out of the
wreckage that terror has wrought.


Along with such special studies and symposia, we must engage
these issues at the center of the education we offer.  In our
classrooms we must confront the questions that divide us even
when we pursue common programs of study.  We must therefore
resist the easy alternative of uneasy silence and instead engage
the tough issues that polarize our world.  Such engagement will
occur more readily in some programs of study than in others --
for example, in international affairs or global policy or area
studies or comparative law or religion.  But in principle every
course must be an arena in which respectful debate on fundamental
disagreements is allowed and even welcomed.....
Similarly, in our lives outside of formal courses, symposia, and
research projects, we must work against ethnic or religious
stereotyping and intolerance.  To be specific, we must take
special measures to counter hateful speculation or harassment
directed against Arabs and Muslims......
Not only current students, staff, and faculty but also Columbia
alumni worldwide are a resource for the ongoing task of building
multi-ethnic, multi-religious communities that are both inclusive
and just.  We must face the fact that in the history of human
experience we have not yet fully succeeded in creating such
communities, which is why the task is so daunting.  Yet as we
mourn the victims of an unspeakable tragedy, we must commit
ourselves all the more to reach out to each other across the
lines of our differences and to work all the harder to realize
ideals that so far have been only partially and imperfectly
achieved.  To reach out and to work together to build communities
that bridge divisions in our pluralistic world is a challenge
worthy of the core values that Columbians over the generations
share.  I urge all of us to address this challenge in the days,
months, and years ahead.

Sincerely,


George Rupp


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