“A Year after September 11” speech series closes with unpopular opinions

A diverse crowd packed in the University Museum Auditorium, listening attentively as two SIUC professors discussed their opinions on the war on terrorism Wednesday – views that both professors coined “unpopular.”

The attentive audience was glued to their seats as the first speaker approached the podium.

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“I have to warn you what I have to say will not be popular,” announced Robert Benford, chairman of the Department of Sociology.

Benford was giving a speech titled “Collateral damage from the war on terrorism,” part of a College of Liberal Arts speech series dedicated to looking at issues stemming from the terrorist attacks more than a year ago.

But the collateral damage Benford was referring to had little to do with the destruction in Afghanistan.

Sanctions on security, privacy and freedom of speech on the American people have played a large part in the damage of liberties, according to Benford.

“The U.S. response to the 9/11 attacks represented a surrender to terrorism, because the government’s very actions increased the level of fear and alarm [in the American people],” he said.

Benford pointed out the recent passing of the Homeland Security Act on Monday as being detrimental to the freedom of citizens in this country.

“Huge power has been granted to the federal government that surpasses anything else in U.S. history in terms of the amount of power we give to the central authority,” he said. “It rivals the powers of the KGB in the Soviet Union and the Gestapo in Nazi Germany.”

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Another victim of collateral damage is academic freedom, Benford said. He noted the case of Sami Al-Arian, a professor at the University of Central Florida.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, Al-Arian appeared on Fox’s “The O’Reilly Factor.” Following the program, where Bill O’Reilly, the show’s host, suggested Al-Arian was a terrorist, the school was flooded with death threats that led to Al-Arian’s firing.

“The right to disagree is under threat,” he said.

He closed by putting up a slide of Martin Luther King’s quote, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

Views on the war on terrorism didn’t change as the next speaker approached the podium.

Psychology professor Alan Vaux presented his speech titled “A Fragile Sense of Security.”

Vaux said his experience growing up in Ireland gave him perspective on the way people around the world view Americans – and it is not a good one.

He said the bad reputation helps fuel dislike for the United States.

“I don’t think Americans have a good sense of what others think,” he said. “We need to stop being arrogant. We need to stop looking like we’re pushing the world around.”

The United States is indefensible, Vaux said, because citizens live in an open society that makes the war on terrorism unwinnable.

Instead, Vaux believes the government needs to focus more on its communication and foreign policy with other nations to improve relations.

“This is a terrorist’s wet dream,” he said. “Homeland Security is a waste of time.”

Reporter Brad Brondsema can be reached at [email protected]