Excerpt from very touching Chomsky interview

[Temporary1]

"Ex: And what keeps you motivated?
Ch: I'll just tell you a brief story. I was in Beirut a couple of months ago giving talks at the American university in the city. After a talk, people come up and they want to talk privately or have books signed.
Here I was giving a talk in a downtown theatre, a large group of people were around and a young woman came up to me, in her mid-'20s, and just said this sentence: "I am Kinda" and practically collapsed. You wouldn't know who Kinda is but that's because we live in societies where the truth is kept hidden. I knew who she was. She had a book of mine open to a page on which I had quoted a letter of hers that she wrote when she was seven years old.
It was right after the U.S. bombing of Libya, her family was then living in Libya, and she wrote a letter which was found by a journalist friend of mine who tried to get it published in the United States but couldn't because no one would publish it. He then gave it to me, I published it. The letter said something like this:
"Dear Mr Reagan, I am seven years old. I want to know why you killed my little sister and my friend and my rag doll. Is it because we are Palestinians? Kinda". That's one of the most moving letters I have ever seen and when she walked up to me and said I am Kinda, and, like I say, actually fell over, not only because of the event but because of what it means.
Here's the United States with no pretext at all, bombing another country, killing and destroying, and nobody wants to know what a little seven-year-old girl wrote about the atrocities. That's the kind of thing that keeps me motivated and ought to keep everybody motivated. And you can multiply that by 10,000."


http://www.chomsky.info/interviews/20061025.htm

Noam Chomsky is a wonderful human being; it is a shame that outside of intelligent circles in the USA he is rarely shown anywhere.

[Buzz Clik]

1. Chomsky is truly unique, and I admire him.

Mention his name sometime in a positive light on a right-leaning website; be sure to wear your asbestos shorts.

[Temporary1]

2. I never have seen hate spewed like that

They don't even want to discuss what he has to say; it's extreme to say the least.

[Buzz Clik]

4. They find it hard to believe that he despised Clinton's foreign policy, too.

He's very consistent. He sees it a US policy, not the manifestation of a given administration.

[Clark2008]

14. They don't even know.

I was watching the exchange between O'Lielly and Wes Clark the other day in which O'Lielly starts spewing, well, lies about George Soros (Soros gave $75,000 to Clark's WesPAC) and what a "bad guy" he is and that he's a "leftwing bomb thrower."

Clark said, "Have you read his book?" and O'Lielly sputtered and never answered.

Of course, O'Lielly had never read his book - and, if he had, any DECENT person, especially as so-called conservative who believes in pulling oneself up by one's boot straps - couldn't have any arguments with Soros' book.

They just put their fingers in their ears and pretend the truth isn't out there - sort of like Freeperville pulling election polling threads that are positive toward Democrats.

[Tom Joad]

18. How about here? It happens here too. Though not most folks.

[katinmn]

3. I read that interview. Very moving. You can find some interviews

he did while in Lebanon on YouTube.

Chomsky is well loved outside the US. A journalist friend in Sweden who helps with logistics when Chomsky travels there holds him in very high regard. Chomsky's like a rock star in Sweden.

[Temporary1]

5. It makes you wonder what would happen say if he

had a television show in the 60's or something. We might just be living in a different world.

[valerief]

6. If he were allowed a mainstream show in the 60s, the world

would have already been different then.

[lostnfound]

7. Thank you for sharing. I am glad

for every day he does what he does. He seems to never give up.

[enough]

8. k&r

[rman]

9. k&r

[mom cat]

10. My tears are cloudingeverything. Big hug to Kinda and my deepest apologies

to all the little girls and boys this country has hurt, I am very sorry for what we did and what we continue to do.

[aikoaiko]

11. I wonder if Chomsky answered her question....

1986 Berlin discotheque bombing
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Berlin discotheque bombing of April 5, 1986 was a terrorist attack on the West Berlin La Belle discotheque that was frequented by U.S. soldiers. A bomb placed under a table near the DJ booth exploded at the club, killing a Turkish woman and two U.S. servicemen and injuring 230 people, including more than 50 American servicemen. Nermin Hannay and U.S. Sgt Kenneth T. Ford died instantly. Sgt James E. Goins died two months later. Of the injured victims, some were permanently disabled.

Blame and retribution
Libya was blamed for the bombing after telex messages had been intercepted from Libya's East Berlin embassy, and the then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan retaliated by ordering airstrikes against the Libyan capital of Tripoli and city of Benghazi—see Operation El Dorado Canyon. At least 15 people died in the U.S. airstrikes on Libya – including leader Colonel Gaddafi's adopted 15-month old daughter – and more than 100 were injured.

[Make7]

15. Violence begets violence.

 

Two weeks before the La Belle discotheque blast, Gaddafi called for Arab assaults on American interests worldwide after a U.S.-Libyan naval clash in the Mediterranean, in which 35 seamen on a Libyan patrol boat in the Gulf of Sidra were killed in international waters.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1986_Berlin_discotheque_bombing

- Make7

[porkrind]

12. Chomsky is one of my personal heroes

:)

[tomreedtoon]

13. I don't like Chomsky. BUT...at least he is involved.

I've tried to listen to his speeches and his writings. He advocates positions that are too extreme for me. However...

The fact that he paid attention to the impassioned cry for help from a seven-year-old...and gave her voice, and recognized her again in young adulthood...is touching.

Understand that I vote Democratic and don't see any altenatives. But I am eternally disappointed that there is such little contact between the Big Three Democratic candidates for President, and the people thwy should be showcasing to America - the Katrina victims, the grieving families of soldiers lost in this crappy war, the people struggling on minimum wage.

We know the Republicans would look at these people and say "It's all your fault. Go shop at Wal-Mart, then go to work there." But I haven't really heard any advice, helpful or not, from Democrats. And that's the true tragedy.

[Temporary1]

19. Chomsky usually doesn't tell human stories

But he shows very good proficiency at it when he chooses to

[tomreedtoon]

20. Correct, he doesn't, and that's why I'm lukewarm to him.

I think poliics is more than local, it's personal. It isn't simply "the victims" of Katrina; it's one lone parent looking for her lost daughter. You can't focus on the personal too much or you become Oprah, but it simply must be there.

My problem with Chomsky is that he is this grand theorist, who believes his principles and advice will ultimately help mankind, but he doesn't have much contact or understanding of, and only occasional sympathy for, the people he seems to want to help. In the world of genre entertainment which I'm most familiar with, there's a name for such a person. Mad Scientist.

The liberals of the 60's, who created strange social programs (I remember the Pruitt-Igoe housing in Saint Louis as a particular boondoggle) were Mad Scientists. But the leading Mad Scientists have to be Bush and his buddies - they have certainly created and are maintaining several monsters ravaging America and the world. Replacing Bush with Chomsky might reduce the direct bloodshed, but he'd still be experimenting with people and not caring about the results.

[Temporary1]

23. I don't agree that Chomsky is that

It might seem like that if you only read some of his stuff, but being well-versed in him and seeing what he has done on a personal level, I think he is anything but what you are describing. His words on intellectuals themselves show that.

[Beelzebud]

16. Chomsky - A national treasure ignored.

It's a shame that his viewpoint is completely shunned in our corporatized society...

[Tom Joad]

17. Chomsky, because he cares about Palestinians, is the target of

really senseless hate and ridicule. Sometimes even here.
Why does support for human rights and opposition to militarism give rise to such lunacy?

Another question:
Why did 100 US Senators give full support for Israel's bombing campaign in Lebanon? Is it because they hate Arabs?

[Solly Mack]

21. Yes!!

[Toots]

22. "killed my rag doll"

Reagan "We must stay the course" Bush 1 "We must stay the course" Bush* "We must stay the course"... "It has NEVER been about staying the course" What it is really and truly about is killing a childs rag doll.

[Jcrowley]

24. Kick

Thanks. Chomsky tells the truth.