Hedges' Homeopathic Tonic to Bush's Furman Invite

southeast us | education | news report Thursday May 29, 2008 23:12 by Clare Hanrahan

Author Chris Hedges speaks at Furman University as resistance rises to George W. Bush's Saturday Commencement address on the Greenville, SC campus.

Chris Hedges' speech Wednesday at Furman University provided just the homeopathic dose of truth-telling and integrity so needed to ward off the taint of murderous deceit sure to hover about the campus after the unindicted war criminal and so -called Commander in Chief, George W. Bush speaks Furman's Commencement ceremony on Saturday.

An ad hoc group of faculty and others entitled "We Object - 5/31/08 - The Carolinas Respond to Bush's Speech at Furman," or simply, the "We Object" demonstration will be on campus throughout the day Saturday as an additional reminder that Mr. Bush's presence does not meet with unanimous approval.

Hedges told of his own experiences with a hostile audience when he gave a commencement address denouncing the war at Rockford College in 2003, just 2 weeks after Bush's "Mission Accomplished" speech. Hedges was greeted on the Illinois campus with boos and jeers and turned backs, had his microphones twice unplugged, and two students rushed the stage to physically remove him.

After the Rockford College Commencement, Hedges said, the New York times gave him a formal reprimand. He left the paper. "I could not muzzle myself," he said. Hedges is now associated with The Nation magazine.

Those at Rockford who stood and turned their backs engaged in an "appropriate" expression of dissent, Hedges said. "You have the right to protest," he said, "but not the right to disrupt the event," and he stressed the need to "register our disapproval in such a way that doesn't allow us to be herded like sheep in such a way that our posture gives tacit approval."

"If only one professor (at Furman) stands up and turns his back on Saturday, that will be powerful. That will be a success. "

With the compelling topic, “The Corporate State and the Subversion of Democracy," Hedges, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author, addressed about 200 people gathered in Younts Conference Center as part of a Furman faculty-sponsored panel series titled “Assessing the Bush Presidency.”

Hedges is credible and clear. He spent nearly seven years as Middle East bureau chief for the New York Times, and called the war and occupation the "worst foreign policy blunder in American history." Hedges covered the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo, and was part of the New York Times team that won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of global terrorism.

"I used to live in a country called America...only a shell remains...it is so diminished as to be
hardly recognizable," Hedges lamented. He described the rising power of the corporate state as a "Coup de`Eta in slow motion," and called for the repeal of the NAFTA and WTO.

"We are maybe two terrorist attacks away from a police state," Hedges warned. "Unless we soon reverse this tide, " he said, we will become a globalized world with only masters and slaves. "There is a growing desperation across the US...the assault is nearly complete...with the rise of the corporate state comes the rise of surveillance...we are fed lie after lie to mask the destruction the corporate state has wrought."

Hedges holds a Masters of Divinity from Harvard and is the son of an "activist" Presbyterian minister. This bent toward the spiritual was evident in his remarks to questioners following his more formal address.

"As things deteriorate one has to salvage one's own integrity and trust that it means something," he said. "Taking those kinds of stances radiates outward with a power that we cannot easily dismiss. Individual acts of courage (matter) even while most people are too timid and afraid to say anything."

Hedges is not a pacifist, and has seen plenty of the ugliness of war, which he said is "a poison we must some times ingest, like chemotherapy for cancer." He spoke of his time in Sarajevo and the fear and horror when 2,000 shells a day, targeting the water taps, would "eviscerate the human body. ...I couldn't eat a piece of meat for three years after Sarajevo."

When asked "Why will our leaders not impeach?" Hedges said, "I'm not sure. My fear is that by not beginning at least an impeachment investigation, there is much we will never find out."

Hedges ended his presentation with the declaration: "If we attack Iran, I won't be paying my taxes anymore."

He received a standing ovation for his strong and clear remarks. I wish I had on hand a digital recorder to capture the powerful message.

Among those who came to hear Hedges speak was a woman with a basket of white armbands with a note attached listing the objections of Furman faculty to the actions of the Bush Administration.

Hedges is the author of several books, including War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America, and I Don’t Believe in Atheists.