When I Was Teaching At The University

If I Turned Towards Books, It Was Because They Were The Only Sanctuary I Knew, One I Needed In Order To Survive, To Protect Some Aspect Of Myself That Was Now In Constant Retreat.

I Believe That It Is Only Through Empathy, That The Pain Experienced By An Algerian Woman, A North Korean Dissident, A Rwandan Child Or An Iraqi Prisoner, Becomes Real To Me And Not Just Passing News. And It Is At Times Like This When I Ask Myself, Am I Prepared - Like Huck Finn - To Give Up Sunday School Heaven For The Kind Of Hell That Huck Chose?

The Crisis Besetting America Is Not Just An Economic Or Political Crisis; Something Deeper Is Wreaking Havoc Across The Land, A Mercenary And Utilitarian Attitude That Demonstrates Little Empathy For People’s Actual Well-being, That Dismisses Imagination And Thought, Branding Passion For Knowledge As Irrelevant.

Khatami Is A Symptom And Not The Cause Of Change In Iran.

The Stories From Iran's Present And Past Are Reminders That Freedom, Democracy And Human Rights, Or Fundamentalism, Fascism And Terrorism Are Not Geographically And Culturally Determined, But Universal.