My Letter to John McCain

My letter to John McCain is below. I also sent a version to Paul Ryan, Lindsey Graham, Jeff Flake, Susan Collins, Pat Toomey, and Mitch McConnell. I was waiting to see what would actually happen when Trump became president, hoping that he might surprise us and lead from the center. A week into his presidency, it is clear to me that he represents the greatest threat to our country since World War II. If it makes it easier to do something, please feel free to use any parts of this letter to email these same members of Congress, or write your own letter, or call Washington offices or district offices. We have to make Republican senators understand that the Trump threat transcends politics. We also have to help Democratic senators realize that we want/need for them to stand united in blocking the actions and agenda of this White House.

It is easy to submit emails to members of congress or to find office numbers. They all have forms on their websites to submit electronically as well as list their various numbers.

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Dear Mr. McCain,

This letter is an appeal for your leadership in navigating what is the greatest threat to our democracy since World War II. Your leadership is required to protect America from the Trump administration and to strengthen our adherence to the foundations of our democracy. 

I am a 41-year old, middle-class professional and father of two small children. I have voted in every election since I turned 18, and in full disclosure I did not vote for Donald Trump because of his temperament, his absence of intellectual curiosity, and his disregard for human rights (from his treatment of women to this threats against religious minorities). Yet, I’ve reserved my criticism over these last two months because I wanted to see what he would actually do as President, and I hoped that he would lead from the middle of a divided country. 

Mr. Trump’s actions of the past week are terrifying. They leave me trying to figure out how I can continue to support my family while devoting my non-working hours to activism that protects our Constitution. The Trump administration is engaged in both direct and slippery-slope attacks on the Bill of Rights. The executive order limiting the entry of Muslims -- regardless of the selection of specific countries – is an open assault on the principles that our country was founded upon. It is also a “dog whistle” invitation for discrimination and physical attacks against Americans who practice the Islamic faith. The White House’s open instruction to the media to “keep its mouth shut” is not acceptable by any standard. Trojan horse cabinet members such as Jeff Sessions, Betsy Devos, Scott Pruitt, and Tom Price who will destroy and delegitimize our institutions will not improve the efficiency of our government. They will hurt people.

You have demonstrated outrage for perceived attacks on our 2nd amendment rights to bear arms and taken action to protect that constitutional right. I call on you to do the same for our first amendment rights of the freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, and freedom of speech. This is different than a policy disagreement on an issue like immigration or health care; this is not Democrat vs. Republican. This is a winner-takes-all-struggle for our democracy and the protection of our rights vs. authoritarian and corrupt rule that discriminates based upon religion, ethnicity, gender, skin color, and socio-economic level. 

Moderate, middle-class, middle-age Americans like me are considering how and where to practice peaceful, civil disobedience to stop this hijacking of our country. You swore to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” This is YOUR Neville Chamberlin moment. Chamberlin appeased Hitler at Munich, when Hitler could have been stopped. The time to act is now while this Trump cancer is in a fairly embryonic form of executive orders and cabinet appointments. 

I ask you to lead and to represent the values that caused you to run for public office the first time. Oppose these executive orders and vote only to confirm cabinet members who have demonstrated that they are qualified for their proposed positions and who have been proven not to have a conflict of interest. Consider history and understand that if you wait, we will lose the opportunity to decisively defeat this threat. 

I know that we share a love for this country. Protect our rights, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. Thank you for your service to our country.

Sincerely,

Ben Orbach

Fouad Ajami

 

Professor Fouad Ajami passed yesterday. I haven't seen an obit or essay that does justice to him as a person and a teacher. There was and is so much more to Fouad Ajami than questions pertaining to Iraq, Palestine, and Israel.

 

Fouad Ajami touched and taught so many people. I remember Professor Ajami for such good things as teaching his Arab political thought class and supporting me with my book, my work, a fellowship application, or whatever else it was that I asked of him.  Vanished Imam remains one of the best non-fiction books I've ever read.  Most of all I remember Professor Ajami for giving me the chance to form and express my own opinions on the world where he was expert -- even if my opinions diverged from what he believed to be true.

 

Professor Ajami was always very generous with me, and I learned a great deal from him -- about the Middle East, about writing, and about the concept of dignity. He had an impact on the thinking and work of hundreds of graduate students who today are practitioners of international relations. That is a legacy that is hard to quantify but that will surely be missed.

Goodbye, Big East

As I watched Dante Taylor and Trey Woodall bring down the curtain on Pitt’s final Big East home game this past Sunday, I realized that some of my favorite childhood memories are linked to Big East basketball. My parents worked at Pitt for three decades, and I grew up on Pitt’s campus, going to games.

Big East giants from Patrick Ewing and Derrick Coleman to Allen Iverson and Ray Allen came to town and tried to escape with a victory. The best player I ever saw in person was Syracuse’s Billy Owens. I’ll never forget a play when he was trapped in the corner and somehow stepped around Darren Morningstar, took two dribbles, and almost tore the rim from the backboard “Send it in Jerome!” style.

For Big East aficionados, the conference’s break-up is sad. I’m thrilled (and still surprised) that Pitt wasn’t the Connecticut left behind, but disappointed that the conference as we know it will cease to exist. Over the last 30 years, I’ve marveled at the speed, athleticism, and physicality that went into the battle to be the Beast of East. Every time I think of the 2003 Brandin Knight team breaking through at the Big East tourney, I smile.

Those Knight-led teams broke a trend and started a Golden Era of over-achievement. Pitt has had the best winning percentage in the Big East the last 12 years! That is an unbelievable fact for those of us who remember Paul Evans ordering players to carry cinder blocks around Fitzgerald Fieldhouse, Ralph Willard blaming his players for losses, and Ben Howland absconding into the UCLA night.

My favorite Fieldhouse moment was when Pitt beat then number 3 Oklahoma in 1989. Brian Shorter was a force inside. I’ve never seen another college basketball player catch the ball in the post and attack the hoop like Shorter. Rod Brookin was unconscious, hitting jumper after jumper from the corner. The old scoreboard, a square antique that hung above center court, flashed “OX OX OX” and “Hot Rod” with such 80s flair.
 
I loved that 1989 team. The pre-fab five of Shorter, Sean Miller, Bobby Martin, Jason Mathews, and Darelle Porter held so much potential, and we dreamed of championships. Like so many other Pitt teams, it just didn’t happen, though. They had a terrible coach. They missed free throws. They had no bench.

That was a year when my brother and I took turns going to the games with my Dad. We’d go to Pizza Hut before the game, eat two hand-tossed pizzas for $9.99 (we always had a coupon), and then cram into the Fieldhouse, a venue where Pitt could beat anyone. We’d cheer for Jerome Lane and Rod Brookin, but also Jerry McCullough and Orlando Antigua in the lean years. It is one of the times, as a middle schooler and then as a high schooler, that I felt unquestionably happy, sure that there was nowhere else I’d rather be. Standing the entire game, eating nachos a few minutes before the half (to beat the line), and watching Pitt slay giants on a school night – it was great.

It has been years since I lived in Pittsburgh, but my love for Pitt basketball has stayed the same. It isn’t always easy – this Golden Age has brought its own stomach punches. I’m twice as old as these guys now, but Scottie Reyonlds’ lay-up in 2009 felt worse than Barry Goheen’s 3-pointer in 1988. Nasir Robinson’s foul against Butler in the 2011 tourney still hurts.

For every tearful March, though, there is the hopeful promise of January and February. Charles Smith is as close as we ever came to a Carmelo Anthony or Alonzo Mourning, but winter seems less gray when you have Jaron Brown’s grit, Sam Young’s head fake, and Chevy Troutman’s footwork; when Ricky Greer is flying to the rim, Pat Cavanaugh hustling to the floor, and Levance Fields stepping back and nailing a three.

These Big East basketball stories have been a part of Pittsburgh’s poetry, right next to the tales of Andy Van Slyke dives, Greg Lloyd sacks, and Carnell Lake hits. Champions never crowned, they played their hearts out, filled us with pride, and beat the best.

Good bye Big East, it’s been a wonderful ride.

Shirley Kagan and the Library in Ram

Shirley Kagan was a beloved wife, mother, and grandmother. She was also an unofficial ambassador and peace builder who I was proud to call my friend. Shirley passed away on Thursday night.

Shirley, her husband Irv, and their family had an impact on my life before I ever met them. David Kagan, their middle son, studied Middle East Studies at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). David died in 1986 at the age of 23. He was a passionate advocate for peace and mutual understanding at a time when such positions were not in vogue. To support David’s hopes and vision, the Kagan family started a foundation in his name, dedicated to advancing peaceful relationships among people of different nationalities and faiths.

One of the Foundation’s legacies is to support a SAIS Middle East Studies graduate student to study Arabic in the summer before his or her second year. I was selected as the David Kagan Fellow for 2001 and have done my best to forge a career that advances the goals that I share with the Kagan family.

In November of 2008, I met Shirley and Irv for the first time. They invited me to deliver the annual David Kagan Memorial Lecture at their synagogue. I was running a small grant program in the West Bank at the time, and the Kagans asked me to speak about that experience and about living and working in the Arab World. Following Shabbat services that day, I shared with 200 some congregants my viewpoints about “the Human Face of the Arab World,” as I put it. I concluded by encouraging the congregation to be a part of the change they wanted to see and to collect their used books for a library in Ram, a city in the West Bank.

Ram, a city of about 65,000 people located between Jerusalem and Ramallah, was cut from Jerusalem by the separation barrier. Jerusalem was Ram’s lifeline, and the Local Council faced the task of providing residents with new schools, a hospital, and a park. With US government assistance, the Council built a library for Ram and its surrounding villages and equipped the library with a computer lab. However, the shelves of the library remained empty; the community couldn’t afford to buy books.

After my speech, Shirley enthusiastically approached me, gave me a hug, and said nonchalantly of the Ram library project, “Yeah, we’re going to do that.” Pointing to her 12-year old granddaughter, she said that collecting the books would be Sasha’s mitzvah project, or service project, for her Bat Mitzvah the next year.

Shirley, her granddaughter, and the rest of the Kagan family ran with the idea. They printed a flyer, reached out to friends, and personally collected more than 1600 books – from Pride and Prejudice to Clifford the Big Red Dog – for children half way around the world who they’d never met and who were supposedly their enemies. They cataloged each book in their apartment on the Upper West Side, put a “Books Building Bridges” sticker inside of each, and packed them into boxes.

And then they waited.

First it was a problem with the Palestinian ministry of culture. Once that was resolved, the real problems began with the Israeli taxes and customs department. The request to ship the books disappeared into a black hole that no appeal could shake free.

In the meantime, Shirley visited Ram in the summer of 2010. She braved a new world, crossed Kalandia checkpoint, and walked a courageous walk. She visited the empty library with Muhanned, the Ram Municipality’s Executive Director and Wafaa, the head of the Women’s Committee, neither of whom she met before. They placed the handful of books Shirley carried with her on the shelves, a down payment on what was to come.

Shortly after returning to New York, Shirley was diagnosed with cancer. She battled it with strength and humor. Along the way, her family continued to wait for permission from the Israeli authorities to send the books. While we pleaded for help in completing this act of selflessness, Shirley was patient and upbeat. If she ever considered this library project a fool’s errand, she never let on to me. All she had was sincere enthusiasm for the prospect of the 100,000 people in the Ram area having access to such a wealth of resources that would help to build a better life and peace.

The books were shipped to Israel last month, almost three years after I gave that speech. They arrived in Ram a couple of weeks ago. We all had a vision of Shirley and Irv reading with the children in the library. Shirley was so enthusiastic about the idea of volunteering abroad one day.

When I met Shirley and Irv three years ago, it felt like I was visiting with family I hadn’t seen in a while. Shirley was that warm and generous a person – a lot of people felt that way about her. I am sad those kids in the Ram library won’t have the chance to feel that way, too. They missed someone special, we all will.

My 9/11 story

The attacks set me off to become an unofficial ambassador
Tuesday, September 06, 2011 (Pittsburgh Post Gazette)

By Benjamin Orbach


Ten years ago, I walked up the steps to my Arabic class as Nadav, a short guy from Brooklyn, bounded from the building, yelling "Someone flew a plane into the World Trade Center!" We were both graduate students at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C.

I joined Nadav and a handful of students around the TV in the building's lounge. When the second tower fell, I stood up and walked home. It was such a beautiful, clear day, yet it seemed as though the world was ending.

The previous semester, I had written my masters' thesis on Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida. Still, I had questions. In particular, what had led individuals to do this and how did people in the Arab world feel about these attacks? Within a year, I moved to Jordan to learn more Arabic and to search for answers.

Not knowing anyone in Amman, I wandered the city and spoke to anyone who would speak back about 9/11 and U.S. foreign policy, but also about everyday life and our hopes for the future. Over the course of a year, I backpacked through Syria and Morocco, then moved to Cairo at the start of the Iraq war.

Along the way, I continued to speak and listen -- to the Egyptian falafel cook making $5 a day, to my Jordanian barber who wanted to move to Detroit, to a young Syrian woman working in an art gallery in Hama, to so many others. I became intimately familiar with the problems of securing a life of dignity in the Arab world -- whether that's affording marriage, finding a job after graduation or carving out personal space in authoritarian states.

On a fall day in 2002, I had an epiphany about how private American citizens might help our Arab counterparts with these problems while improving our own security. As I taught Sundos, a headscarf-covered 18-year-old University of Jordan student, to use a computer, I realized that no matter what befell Jordan as a result of the war in Iraq, there would remain a role for Americans to play in building partnerships.

For Sundos, the Internet wasn't just entertainment but a tool of professional and personal empowerment. She was grateful for my help in opening a world of possibilities and was happy to be my friend.

Like people I met throughout that year in the Middle East, she differentiated between the American people and the U.S. government, seeing the American people as our country's greatest asset and U.S. foreign policy as our greatest liability. For her and many others, Americans created Hollywood and Harvard, while the U.S. government backed dictators and launched wars.

When I returned home in late 2003, I went to work at the State Department managing programs that support democratic reforms and women's empowerment in the Middle East and North Africa. I saw success in projects that paired American experts with Arab activists and leaders.

Whether it was legislative assistants from Colorado and Vermont training Algerian parliamentary staffers to draft bills or a documentary maker from Mississippi teaching activists in Bahrain to make short videos, I witnessed the American people serving as unofficial ambassadors. They supported local leaders seeking to address the educational, economic, human rights and other development challenges within their communities. In the process, they represented the diversity and strength of America.

I decided that I, too, wanted to become an unofficial ambassador and play a direct role in creating opportunities. I returned to the ranks of the American people and worked for an international development company in the Palestinian territories from 2007 to 2009. I designed and implemented a small grant program that built educational facilities, installed computer labs and provided recreational equipment to women's centers and youth clubs in isolated villages and woebegone refugee camps.

We completed projects in more than 75 communities that benefited more than 10,000 people striving to improve their lives. Along the way, I continued to represent America while learning about the daily problems that manifest themselves in global issues.

This past year, we launched the America's Unofficial Ambassadors initiative at Creative Learning, a Washington, D.C.,-based nonprofit organization. Our goal is to increase the number of American volunteers in the Muslim worldm, and we are building a community to offer them guidance and support. By the end of 2012, we hope to have encouraged 1,000 Americans to commit to volunteering for one week to one year.

In March, we released the AUA Directory, the premiere resource for researching short-term volunteer opportunities in Muslim-majority countries. You don't have to be a professional development worker to teach English in Indonesia, to build a house in Jordan, to promote public health in Senegal or to help build peace.

Frequently, I think about my walk home on that terrible, clear day 10 years ago when everything changed. I'm grateful to have found a path to making a difference and to have met so many other unofficial ambassadors who are doing the same.


Benjamin Orbach, a Pittsburgh native and author of "Live from Jordan," directs the America's Unofficial Ambassadors initiative at Creative Learning.

Unprecedented Initiative to Promote American Volunteerism in the Muslim World Announces First Volunteers

Washington DC, May 24, 2011 — Creative Learning, a Washington DC based non-profit organization, is pleased to announce that Alison Horton, from Highland Park, New Jersey and Samantha Faulkner, from Lawrenceberg, Kentucky are the first winners of the America’s Unofficial Ambassadors (AUA) Mosaic Scholarship. Creative Learning launched the AUA initiative in March of 2011 to encourage and support more Americans to volunteer short-term in education, health, and other human development areas in the Muslim World. Through programs that raise awareness and increase access to impactful service opportunities, the AUA initiative is mobilizing Americans to reach across cultural differences, form partnerships of mutual interest, and build peace. By December of 2012, the AUA initiative intends to encourage 1000 Americans to commit to at least one week of service in the Muslim World.

The AUA Mosaic Scholarship will increase the number of volunteers who represent the diverse, social mosaic that is America in the Muslim World. Scholarship recipients volunteer from one week to a year, with an organization listed in the AUA Directory of Recommended Organizations. The AUA Directory provides profiles of leading organizations that send or host American volunteers serving in education, health, and other community needs in Muslim-majority countries. The AUA Directory is the premier resource for researching short-term volunteer opportunities in the Muslim World and is available free of charge at www.unofficialambassadors.com.

Both Alison Horton and Samantha Faulkner will depart the United States in June. Each was chosen from a competitive field based upon their essay submissions, commitment to service, and personal interviews. Ms. Horton will serve as a volunteer in Bangladesh through the BRAC organization; and Ms. Faulkner will volunteer in the Palestinian Territories through the Middle East Fellowship program. As part of the Mosaic Scholarship program, recipients will blog about their volunteer experiences on the AUA blog, and upon their return, give presentations within their communities. These stories and presentations will help shatter stereotypes and raise awareness for the value and impact of service.

AUA Program Director Benjamin Orbach said, “We are thrilled to support these two volunteers who will represent the best of America to communities in South Asia and the Middle East as they support local leaders in grappling with their development challenges. It is equally exciting to think about the impact that these returned volunteers will have in their home communities when they return from their service and share their experiences within their schools, faith groups, and community centers.”

Explaining why she wanted to be a part of AUA’s initiative, Samantha Faulkner said, “I think I could be a good representative of a generally misunderstood part of our country. By eliminating these stereotypes and prejudices in both cultures, we open the door to a new level of tolerance and communication that would certainly not have been possible before. I would be honored to be a part of such a mission.”

From her perspective, Alison Horton emphasized the importance of the AUA initiative by saying, “I’m so thankful for the resources provided to me by America's Unofficial Ambassadors to make this opportunity possible. I'll be working with BRAC, an incredible organization that has achieved unprecedented leaps in school enrollment, childhood immunization, food security, and infant survival in some of the most desperate communities.”

Applications are being accepted for the annual Mosaic Scholarship program through August 31. All qualified American citizens, committed to volunteering in the Muslim World through an organization listed in the AUA Directory, are eligible for the scholarship. For more details about AUA and the Mosaic Scholarship, please visit here.

About Creative Learning
America’s Unofficial Ambassadors is a strategic initiative of Creative Learning, a Washington DC-based not-for-profit organization that enhances the capacity of local organizations around the world to improve the lives of people in their communities. Through the creation of people-to-people partnerships, Creative Learning is especially dedicated to protecting human rights, supporting economic and social development, and building peace. Consistent with the program’s theme that American citizens should do more to make a difference, AUA does not seek government funding. For information about sponsorship opportunities, please contact Tracy Key at tracykeyevents at aol.com.

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My Thoughts on Greg Mortenson

Pittsburgh - I watched the 60 Minutes piece on Greg Mortenson with disappointment. If you haven’t heard of Greg Mortenson, he is a humanitarian that has built more than 100 schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan as well as the best-selling author of Three Cups of Tea (co-written with Oliver David Relin). Three Cups of Tea is the inspirational story of Mortenson’s personal journey from a lost K2 mountain climber to the founder of the Central Asia Institute, an organization devoted to children’s education, primarily girls, in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

If you haven’t watched the 60 Minutes piece, Mortenson is accused of embellishing his personal story and of his mismanagement of the Central Asia Institute. He has offered a partial response to the accusations – none of which are criminal – and I hope that he clarifies further the points that have been raised.
In the interim, I have two thoughts on the subject.

Read more here.