October 25, 2001
The Home Front: Grassroots response answered highest calling
Since Sept. 11, Americans and people living throughout the world have been adjusting to new realities and new questions.
Can we build terror-resistant buildings and cities? Does mass communications aid terrorists, or deter them? Need we sacrifice our civil liberties as the price for security? Do international studies programs help us respond to global threats? How can we go on with our daily lives in the face of such horrific losses?
For the rest of fall quarter, University Week will explore such questions in a weekly question-and-answer column with faculty and staff in such fields as law, architecture, communications, information sciences and international studies. Please send comments or suggestions to uweek@u.washington.edu.
University Week: Before you joined the Evans School in 1997, you were a leader of an international relief and development organization. Does that experience affect your outlook on the current crisis?
Marc Lindenberg: Between 1970 and ’97 my professional life sometimes took me to war zones in Vietnam, El Salvador and Angola, famine-plagued nations like Ethiopia, and post-earthquake cities like Managua. In these failed states and war zones I’ve seen some common threads. I’m struck by how thin the veneer of civilization really is, and how easily it can be replaced by cynicism and violence. I’ve also marveled that dramatically different religious traditions sometimes share a common description of us as human beings, torn between the best instincts of charity, compassion and wisdom and the basest emotions like revenge, murder and hate. I admit that I have felt this conflict between my best instincts and basest emotions. The observer in me laments that once a cycle of vengeance begins it is difficult to stop. It took the U.S. at least a hundred years to outlive the rancor of our own Civil War.
UWeek: That sounds awfully pessimistic.
Lindenberg: Actually, as I’ve gotten older I am more of an optimist. I’ve marveled at how some people rise above their basest emotions in crisis. For example, a mayor I met in Rwanda refused to let his community participate in genocide. Others I have not met have led successful mass movements for peaceful change in the face of cruelty or exploitation. I continue to be an optimist because I have seen people, communities and nations make changes that have improved people’s lives against great odds.
UWeek: What is the appropriate role of a university in the face of such a cycle of violence and vengeance in the aftermath of Sept. 11?
Lindenberg: In normal times, the best universities spend their efforts in research and service, helping prepare each new generation of students for the world. When such an institution is compelled to shut down its normal activities, break down the walls between disciplines and open its doors to its widest community, it is living up to its highest calling. The University of Washington has met that mark repeatedly in the last six weeks.
UWeek: What are some of the memories that stand out for you?
Lindenberg: There was nothing contrived about people’s need to gather and reflect. Ultimately each school and organization found a spontaneous need to respond through art, reflection, music. In the best university tradition, President McCormick listened and supported a process that permited an organic effort to emerge. George Bridges, the dean of undergraduate education, and his staff tackled the difficult task of coordinating the events, beginning with student gatherings in Red Square and culminating a week later with a Day of Reflection and Engagement which included nearly 80 official events and activities.
UWeek: Is there more to be learned that people are not necessarily getting from the news media?
Lindenberg: As an academic whose work is reported by some to provide helpful insight in my own area of study, it was humbling for me to confess how little I knew about Islam, or the dynamics of political and religious movements in the Middle East and Central Asia. What a pleasure for me to learn from my colleagues in other disciplines. I gained a great deal from listening to students from the arts, humanities and sciences and from hearing the views of exchange students from other parts of the world like Yemen, Palestine and Pakistan. What an honor to hear the words of U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, only the day before the announcement that he had won the Nobel Peace Prize.
UWeek: Which of the events have moved you personally?
Lindenberg: During the Oct. 1 memorial ceremony in Red Square, undergraduate student Caitlyn Clauson set the tone relating to us her experiences at Ground Zero on Sept. 11. The president of the Muslim Student Association, Humza Chaudhry, provided insights about the values we all hold in common. Jere Bachrach, director of the Jackson School of International Studies, gave an “Introduction to Islam” lecture that provided me with a sense of the roots of the religion and of its dynamic adaptations. On Oct. 11, UW law professor Joan Fitzpatrick helped me understand the emerging international norms related to the conduct of war. County Executive Ron Sims answered intriguing questions about the leadership he has needed to provide during the last month. Seattle Times publisher Frank Blethen decried the changes in media ownership that have sometimes replaced the search for depth in international reporting. A U.N. representative and British citizen, Edward Mortimer, warned us to be vigilant and not lose the balance between security and civil rights, a balance he felt had been lost during early periods of the conflicts in Northern Ireland. Finally, I found Daily student opinion editor Webster Walker’s commentary, in which he warned of the dangers of erosion of civil liberties, particularly useful. Hours after the closing ceremonies on Oct. 11, nearly 3,000 people gathered in the Hec Edmundson Pavilion for a lecture by Jackson School professor Ellis Goldberg. Once again the university and larger community came together to listen and learn. The ideals of a great university are embodied in both reflection on and engagement with the world.
Lindenberg, dean of the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs, was CARE USA’s senior vice president for programs between 1992-97, responsible for providing more than $400 million in resources for humanitarian relief and development in 36 countries. His recent books include “The Human Development Race” and “Going Global: Transforming Relief and Development N.G.O.s.”
