RE: [Marxism] Katrina's real name

["Austin, Andrew" <austina@xxxxxxxx>]

What a coincidence. :)  Perfect timing.
 
When I speak on this subject the crowds are really behind me.  And even in 
class, when the subject is raised, students are attentive and respectful.  They 
know we're in trouble.  The folks who mean me ill have yet to disrupt a speech 
or a class.  However, they secretly record my speeches and lectures, and 
delight in playing them on the radio - heavily edited, of course.  My students 
come up to me, "Hey, they were talking about you on the radio again."  I know.  
"The host was ranting about the communist who teaches at the university filling 
the students' heads with leftist nonsense."  Yes, I know.  The callers to the 
station are a bit frightening.  They have certainly scared my wife.
 
I'm used to all this.  My parents were a civil rights workers and my father a 
preacher of liberation theology in the Church of Christ.  I guess you can see 
the problem right there.  We were kicked out of two churches.  The first time 
it was the work of the Klan.  We had too many black friends.  The second time 
it was the congregation.  This was when we added to our list of crimes 
opposition to the Vietnam War.  They were on AM radio denouncing my father for 
his anti-war activities.  All the people who had shook my dad's hand on the 
church steps struck me as real Christian-like knocking on our door in the 
middle of the night and forcing us to move out in the rain.  My father ran 
cultural enrichment programs for poor rural blacks for the network of black 
churches.  So coming up in school I was THE "nigger lover."  I can't count how 
many times I dusted off the seat of my pants after some gang of white boy 
dumped me.  I tell my wife and kids that it will be okay.  But they have never 
experienced any sort of systematic harassment, so my words don't do much to 
comfort them.  
 
The good thing is that things have died down a bit now that I have tenure and 
have been promoted.  It also helps that it isn't an election season and the 
host for the AM program left for a station in North Carolina.  His replacement 
still does programs on me, but he has a way to go to regain momentum.  The 
previous host commanded a lot of loyalty from his listeners.  Also, the College 
Republicans lost their org status, so they have cleaned up their act in a bid 
to get back into the game.  The local Republican party condemned them for their 
antics - this is, after all, a working class town, so the Republicans have to 
be careful not to look to hostile to a pro-labor professor, especially one who 
works on issues like school climate and truancy.  The Republicans even asked me 
to be the faculty advisor for the Campus Republicans.  I respectfully declined 
(although I considered it, for some perverse reason).  I do not trust things 
will remain quiet, however.  There is too much at stake - especially when I 
start rolling out the articles on the disaster area that is our river and bay.
 
Andrew

________________________________

From: marxism-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx on behalf of Charles Brown
Sent: Tue 8/30/2005 3:24 PM
To: marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [Marxism] Katrina's real name



http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1558884,00.html>


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