Thursday, January 25, 2007

 

Knit a River project

Do you knit or crochet? Got a stash of yarn with something in blue in it? Do you have time between now and late February to knit (or crochet) a 6" block - or two or three or four or more?

Check out the Knit a River project.

If you want to send in some squares collectively (they have to ship to London, England), let me know (lgose [at] indiana [dot] edu). The deadline's listed as March 2007, so I figure the last week of February would be the last available time to mail squares from the States.

Monday, January 22, 2007

 

Preserving constitutional democracy

Last week I had lunch with a law student from Liberia. Already a lawyer in his home country, he is studying law here in the United States to deepen and broaden his experience in the field. He sees a brighter future for his country, and he plans to participate in building that future. Indeed, by the work he has done before coming to the States, he is already building that future.

Walking back to the law school after lunch, we talked about how different things are in the U.S. compared to Liberia. Specifically, we discussed the casual freedom with which Americans discuss and even complain about government policy, such as the President's continuation of the war in Iraq, without fear of recrimination, like being disappeared after a sharp knock on the door in the middle of the night.

Living in the forest, you can forget to look at the trees.

Earlier today while doing my infinitesimally small part to preserve the history of constitutional democracy in Liberia, I learned more about Charles Stimson's remarks of January 11th, wherein he chastised lawyers at leading US firms for representing detainees at Gauntanomo - suggesting that the CEOs whose companies employ the services of these firms pressure those firms not to pursue terrorists as clients - and hinted that such work may not be performed pro bono by everyone. I had heard about Stimson's comments, but it was news that had just sort of washed past me. But, as my Liberian friend noted, we can speak about this, and fortunately some people have been doing so.

A quick bit of Googling led me to some op-ed pieces I found interesting:
My outrage may be a week or so late hitting the blogosphere, but I do believe that Stimson's comments and the reactions to them are important to note. The latter offer a kind of hope that I haven't seen in a while.

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