“Was not their mistake once more bred of the life of slavery that they had been living?—a life which was always looking upon everything, except mankind, animate and inanimate—‘nature,’ as people used to call it—as one thing, and mankind as another, it was natural to people thinking in this way, that they should try to make ‘nature’ their slave, since they thought ‘nature’ was something outside them” — William Morris


Monday, January 30, 2017

Letter to the Principal

Dear Ms. Adams, 

I'm deeply concerned about hate speech against Amelie Panai, the daughter of a Muslim. Many things have happened to her recently, but perhaps the worst happened today, where students said "she should be killed before she bombs the school," 

This is absolutely unacceptable as I'm sure you know. 

The disinhibiting effect of the current president's speech has resulted in students at my job (Rice U), who are normally very shy and introverted, doing things such as wearing swastikas in the library. 

I understand from my daughter, who is Amelie's best friend, that students have drawn swastikas on the dividers of students who attend classes that Amelie attends. 

When stuff happens at my school I tell the president to make a statement--he usually doesn't do it, for whatever reason--but I just couldn't hear what I have been hearing without writing to you to share. 

Yours sincerely, 
Timothy Morton

2 comments:

D. E.M. said...

I am so so sorry.
The disinhibition spread up here, as you know, with mosque attack in Quebec.
That unbelievably xenophobic province is just loving Trump.

Unknown said...

Dear Timothy Morton, thanks for your work and spreading consciousness. I have only now the time to study your work in more depth and was also intrigued by The Guardian's recent article on you. I am looking forward reading your work on "magic". How far will you go with it.. well, let's see.

I thank you for standing up against bigotry and far right hate, violence and mind twisting, but also wonder (I hope I will find out more once the books arrived via the local library here in Berlin): Are you incorporating any ideas from Islam in your work? It could be a profound gesture of solidarity if you quote some lines from the Quran.

This is a very nice article on Islam & Ecology:
http://www.greenmuslims.org/islam-and-ecology/

What happens at the school btw, any updates?

With kind regards from Berlin

PS: I too gathered some ideas on Islam & Ecology, here. We are many.
http://www.theartofislamichealing.com/