Hey F-Blockers,
I think it's fair to say this past rotation was pretty packed with activity. From guest speakers to debates to lots of questions, we explored controversial topics like genocide denial and freedom of speech. Hopefully, this short summary will refresh your memories and keep you thinking about it all as we move forward...
Thursday (9/20) - S.T.A.N.D. founder and recent Stanford alum, Nikki, came in to give us a bit more context and perspective on the current genocide in Darfur. He broke his presentation into three chunks: History, International Community's response, and Activism. Due to lack of time, the "activism" portion was extremely short and we didn't have any time to respond or ask questions.
Monday (9/24) - For homework, we read about and responded to an article on the Armenian Genocide. We were asked to think about how the Turks justified their actions against the Christian minority, as well as how the press responded or should have responded to all that was happening. Then, as the perfect reinforcement for these responses, we had a speaker, Roxanne, come in to give us further context for the Armenian genocide. Her presentation had a very palpable emotional component because her grandparents were Armenians who had been forced to escape the Turkish government's plot. After a moving introduction and lots of facts, Roxanne discussed the effect that denial had and still has on the survivors/witnesses of the genocide. She emphasized how much energy the Turkish government continues to put into erasing the Armenian genocide from history.
Wednesday (9/26) - Today we further discussed the idea of genocide denial, and the strategies the deniers use to bolster their standpoints ("Revisionist" history, logical fallacies, F.U.D.). We read an article from 2006 about a Holocaust denier convention that President Ahmadinejad held in Tehran. This was particularly interesting as it contributed to the close watch we've been conducting on the Iranian President's speech at Columbia. Then, we went to the writing lab and broke into four groups, each group taking on a specific task related to genocide denial. Our homework for Friday is to write a letter to the editor of either the SF Chronicle, the NY Times, or the Oakland Tribune giving our opinion on whether or not we think Mr. Ahmedinejad should have been invited to speak. Congratulations to Leo for having his letter published!
It's been a hectic and thought-provoking week, and I have confidence that as the semester continues, our conversations and ideas are only going to get more complex and interesting...
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