[haw-info] HAW Notes 2/23/12, including links to recent articles of interest

To members and friends of Historians Against the War,

Here are a couple of notes, plus our more or less biweekly set of article links.

1.  A report on the war resisters conference in Toronto last fall, co-sponsored by HAW, has been posted at http://activehistory.ca/2012/01/war-resisters-conference-report-back-looking-back-moving-forward-war-resisters-in-north-america.

2.  Among sessions of potential interest at the Organization of American Historians convention in Milwaukee, April 18-22, is one on "Historical Perspectives on the Democratic Revolutions in the Middle East," featuring Rashid Khalidi, Juan Cole, Melani McAlister, and Michael Sherry, on Friday morning April 20.  The convention program is at http://annualmeeting.oah.org.


Links to Recent Articles of Interest

"Remotely Piloted War: How Drone Wars Became the American Way of Life"
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175507
By Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch.com, posted February 23

"Tucson to Palestine: History as a Weapon"
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/02/21-8
By Judy Sokolower, CommonDreams.org, posted February 21

"Scoring the Global War on Terror: From Liberation to Assassination in Three Quick Rounds"
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175505
By Andrew Bacevich, TomDispatch.com, posted February 19
The author teaches history and international relations at Boston University

"Solidarity and its Discontents"
http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/683/solidarity-and-its-discontents
By the Raha Iranian Feminist Collective, Jadaliyya.com, posted February 19
A lengthy, nuanced discussion of Iranian dissidents and U.S. activists

"Honduras in Flames"
http://www.thenation.com/article/166313/honduras-flames
By Dana Frank, The Nation blog, posted February 16
The author teaches history at the University of California, Santa Cruz

"This War Is Not Over Yet"
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/16/opinion/this-war-is-not-over-yet.html
By Mary Dudziak, New York Times, posted February 15
The author teaches history, law, and political science at the University of Southern California

"Dominion from Sea to Sea: America's Pacific Ascendancy"
http://www.japanfocus.org/-Bruce-Cumings/3687
By Bruce Cumings, Asia-Pacific Journal, posted February 13
The author teaches history at the University of Chicago

"The Afghanistan Report the Pentagon Doesn't Want You to Read"
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/national-affairs/the-afghanistan-report-the-pentagon-doesnt-want-you-to-read-20120210
By Michael Hastings, Rolling Stone, posted February 10
On the report by Lt. Col. Daniel Davis; includes a link to the full report

"A War Anniversary That U.S. Wishes to Forget"
http://www.progressive.org/philippine_american_war.html
By Emil Guillermo, The Progressive, posted February 4
On the Philippine-American War

Thanks to Carl Mirra, Ros Baxandall, and Sam Lowe for suggesting articles that are included in the above list.  Suggestions can be sent to jimobrien48@gmail.com.

[haw-info] HAW Notes 2/9/12: links to on-line articles

Links to Recent Articles of Interest


"US Outrage at Syria Veto at UN Rife with Hypocrisy"
http://www.truth-out.org/putting-un-veto-perspective/1328713320
By Stephen Zunes, TruthOut.org, posted February 8

"Anniversaries from 'Unhistory'"
http://www.nationofchange.org/anniversaries-unhistory-1328625093
By Noam Chomsky, NationofChange.org, posted February 7

"The Betrayal of the Nobel Peace Prize"
http://warisacrime.org/content/betrayal-nobel-peace-prize
By David Swanson, WarIs a Crime.org, posted February 5

Truth, Lies and Afghanistan: How Military Leaders Have Let Us Down"
http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/2012/02/8904030
By Lt. Col. Daniel L. Davis, Armed Forces Journal, February issue

"History Lesson for Newt Gingrich: Andrew Jackson Was a Savage Indian Killer"
http://hnn.us/articles/history-lesson-newt-gingrich-andrew-jackson-was-savage-indian-killer
By William Loren Katz, History News Network, posted January 30

"The Pentagon Pitches its New Strategic Narrative"
http://original.antiwar.com/ruff_horn/2012/01/29/the-pentagon-pitches-its-new-strategic-narrative
By Allen Ruff and Steve Horn, AntiWar.com, posted January 30
Allen Ruff has a history PhD from the University of Wisconsin

"The People and the Patriots: Who Led Whom in the American Revolution"
http://www.bostonreview.net/BR36.6/alfred_f_young_boston_tea_party.php
By Alfred Young, Boston Review, Nov.-Dec. 2011 issue, posted January 25
The author is a professor of history emeritus at Northern Illinois University

"The U.S., Indonesia & the New York Times"
http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/01/24/the-u-s-indonesia-the-new-york-times
By Conn Hallinan, CounterPunch, posted January 24

"A WPA for History: Occupy the American Historical Association"
http://www.truth-out.org/wpa-history-occupy-american-historical-association/1327433474
By Jesse Lemisch, TruthOut.org, posted January 24
The author is a professor of history emeritus at John Jay College, CUNY

"Henoko and the U.S. Military: A History of Dependence and Resistance"
http://japanfocus.org/-Steve-Rabson/3680
By Steve Rabson, The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 10 Issue 4 No. 2, January 23
On U.S. bases in Okinawa; the author is a professor of Asian Studies emeritus at Brown University

Suggestions for these lists can be sent to jimobrien48@gmail.com.  Thanks to Marc Becker, Sam Lowe, Bill Katz, and Al Young for calling attention to articles that are included in the above list.

Banned/boxed books/Info on National Teach In

Below is the list of over 50 books that were banned/boxed up in Tucson. Howard Zinn is on it. So is James Baldwin, and Jane Yolen, and bell hooks.

According to teachers in the Mexican American Studies Department, any books mentioned in the Cambium Audit or in the Kowal findings was boxed up as evidence that the MAS program was in violation of the ethnic studies law in Arizona that says a program may not

1) promote the overthrow of the US government

2) promote resentment to a race or class of people (as I understand it, "class" refers to socioeconomic status)

3) being designed primarily for one ethnic group,

4) advocating ethnic solidarity instead of treating pupils as individuals


Publicly, the Tucson Unified School District issued a statement saying only 7 books and the contents of a file cabinet were removed, but teachers say otherwise. And, they are being monitored to make sure that they don't say anything or tie anything to "a Mexican American perspective." TUSC admin says there are copies of the books in the libraries and students are free to reach them if they want to. And, they say the books aren't banned, they're just being boxed up because the courses they were used in are no longer being taught, so the books aren't needed.

Below is a link to the National Teach In site. Please go there, and plan some action this month, and please forward this email to teachers and community organizers.

Thanks,
Debbie

__________________

No History is Illegal
http://www.teacheractivistgroups.org/tucson/


Book list:

High School Course Texts and Reading Lists Table 20: American Government/Social Justice Education Project 1, 2 - Texts and Reading Lists

Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years (1998), by B. Bigelow and B. Peterson
The Latino Condition: A Critical Reader (1998), by R. Delgado and J. Stefancic
Critical Race Theory: An Introduction (2001), by R. Delgado and J. Stefancic
Pedagogy of the Oppressed (2000), by P. Freire
United States Government: Democracy in Action (2007), by R. C. Remy
Dictionary of Latino Civil Rights History (2006), by F. A. Rosales
Declarations of Independence: Cross-Examining American Ideology (1990), by H. Zinn

Table 21: American History/Mexican American Perspectives, 1, 2 - Texts and Reading Lists

Occupied America: A History of Chicanos (2004), by R. Acuna
The Anaya Reader (1995), by R. Anaya
The American Vision (2008), by J. Appleby et el.
Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years (1998), by B. Bigelow and B. Peterson
Drink Cultura: Chicanismo (1992), by J. A. Burciaga
Message to Aztlan: Selected Writings (1997), by C. Jiminez
De Colores Means All of Us: Latina Views Multi-Colored Century (1998), by E. S. Martinez
500 Anos Del Pueblo Chicano/500 Years of Chicano History in Pictures (1990), by E. S. Martinez
Codex Tamuanchan: On Becoming Human (1998), by R. Rodriguez
The X in La Raza II (1996), by R. Rodriguez
Dictionary of Latino Civil Rights History (2006), by F. A. Rosales
A People's History of the United States: 1492 to Present (2003), by H. Zinn

Course: English/Latino Literature 7, 8

Ten Little Indians (2004), by S. Alexie
The Fire Next Time (1990), by J. Baldwin
Loverboys (2008), by A. Castillo
Women Hollering Creek (1992), by S. Cisneros
Mexican WhiteBoy (2008), by M. de la Pena
Drown (1997), by J. Diaz
Woodcuts of Women (2000), by D. Gilb
At the Afro-Asian Conference in Algeria (1965), by E. Guevara
Color Lines: "Does Anti-War Have to Be Anti-Racist Too?" (2003), by E. Martinez
Culture Clash: Life, Death and Revolutionary Comedy (1998), by R. Montoya et al.
Let Their Spirits Dance (2003) by S. Pope Duarte
Two Badges: The Lives of Mona Ruiz (1997), by M. Ruiz
The Tempest (1994), by W. Shakespeare
A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America (1993), by R. Takaki
The Devil's Highway (2004), by L. A. Urrea
Puro Teatro: A Latino Anthology (1999), by A. Sandoval-Sanchez & N. Saporta Sternbach
Twelve Impossible Things before Breakfast: Stories (1997), by J. Yolen
Voices of a People's History of the United States (2004), by H. Zinn

Course: English/Latino Literature 5, 6

Live from Death Row (1996), by J. Abu-Jamal
The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven (1994), by S. Alexie
Zorro (2005), by I. Allende
Borderlands La Frontera: The New Mestiza (1999), by G. Anzaldua
A Place to Stand (2002), by J. S. Baca
C-Train and Thirteen Mexicans (2002), by J. S. Baca
Healing Earthquakes: Poems (2001), by J. S. Baca
Immigrants in Our Own Land and Selected Early Poems (1990), by J. S. Baca
Black Mesa Poems (1989), by J. S. Baca
Martin & Mediations on the South Valley (1987), by J. S. Baca
The Manufactured Crisis: Myths, Fraud, and the Attack on America's Public Schools (19950, by D. C. Berliner and B. J. Biddle
Drink Cultura: Chicanismo (1992), by J. A Burciaga
Red Hot Salsa: Bilingual Poems on Being Young and Latino in the United States (2005), by L. Carlson & O. Hijuielos
Cool Salsa: Bilingual Poems on Growing up Latino in the United States (1995), by L. Carlson & O. Hijuielos
So Far From God (1993), by A. Castillo
Address to the Commonwealth Club of California (1985), by C. E. Chavez
Women Hollering Creek (1992), by S. Cisneros
House on Mango Street (1991), by S. Cisneros
Drown (1997), by J. Diaz
Suffer Smoke (2001), by E. Diaz Bjorkquist
Zapata's Discipline: Essays (1998), by M. Espada
Like Water for Chocolate (1995), by L. Esquievel
When Living was a Labor Camp (2000), by D. Garcia
La Llorona: Our Lady of Deformities (2000), by R. Garcia
Cantos Al Sexto Sol: An Anthology of Aztlanahuac Writing (2003), by C. Garcia-Camarilo, et al.
The Magic of Blood (1994), by D. Gilb
Message to Aztlan: Selected Writings (2001), by Rudolfo "Corky" Gonzales
Saving Our Schools: The Case for Public Education, Saying No to "No Child Left Behind" (2004) by Goodman, et al.
Feminism is for Everybody (2000), by b hooks
The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child (1999), by F. Jimenez
Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools (1991), by J. Kozol
Zigzagger (2003), by M. Munoz
Infinite Divisions: An Anthology of Chicana Literature (1993), by T. D. Rebolledo & E. S. Rivero
...y no se lo trago la tierra/And the Earth Did Not Devour Him (1995), by T. Rivera
Always Running - La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A. (2005), by L. Rodriguez
Justice: A Question of Race (1997), by R. Rodriguez
The X in La Raza II (1996), by R. Rodriguez
Crisis in American Institutions (2006), by S. H. Skolnick & E. Currie
Los Tucsonenses: The Mexican Community in Tucson, 1854-1941 (1986), by T. Sheridan
Curandera (1993), by Carmen Tafolla
Mexican American Literature (1990), by C. M. Tatum
New Chicana/Chicano Writing (1993), by C. M. Tatum
Civil Disobedience (1993), by H. D. Thoreau
By the Lake of Sleeping Children (1996), by L. A. Urrea
Nobody's Son: Notes from an American Life (2002), by L. A. Urrea
Zoot Suit and Other Plays (1992), by L. Valdez
Ocean Power: Poems from the Desert (1995), by O. Zepeda

_____________________________________

Debbie Reese, Ph.D.
Tribally enrolled: Nambe Pueblo

Publisher of American Indians in Children's Literature
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/debreese
Email: dreese.nambe@gmail.com

[haw-info] Arizona Banned Books Teach In on February 1

To members and friends of Historians Against the War,

 

Arizona’s HB 2281 goes into effect today, February 1, 2012, and we are asking you to join a national Teach In and take a few minutes in your classes or other places to read a passage from one of the banned books.

 

This bill has taken Mexican American Studies out of school curriculum especially in the Tucson Unified School District. It is also a threat to ethnic studies in public education at all levels. The TUSD has recently gone into classrooms and boxed up books considered to be part of this program (while students were in classes). They have also regulated that certain themes in other books cannot be taught. For example, if Shakespeare’s The Tempest is taught, the theme of oppression cannot be. The books being “banned” are from a variety of writers, not just those in Mexican Studies.

 

The seven books that were removed from TUSD classrooms are:

 

Critical Race Theory by Richard Delgado
500 Years of Chicano History in Pictures edited by Elizabeth Martinez
Message to Aztlan by Rodolfo Corky Gonzales
Chicano! The History of the Mexican Civil Rights Movement by Arturo Rosales
Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Fiere
Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years edited by Bill Bigelow and Bob Peterson
Occupied America: A History of Chicanos by Rodolfo Acuña

 

There was some confusion in the news media about other works, such as Shakespeare’s The Tempest, and Rodolfo Anaya’s Bless, Me Ultima, being removed as well. While some teachers, and administrators, questioned whether they could continue to use such works, and were told that they should “stay away from any units where race, ethnicity and oppression are central themes” the books were not removed from the classrooms.

 

This article may help clarify
From the January 17 Tucson Weekly “TUSD Banning Books? Well Yes, and No, and Yes

http://www.tucsonweekly.com/TheRange/archives/2012/01/17/tusd-banning-book-well-yes-and-no-and-yes

 

The American Library Association provides the following definitions for challenged vs. banned books:

 

“A challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group. A banning is the removal of those materials. Challenges do not simply involve a person expressing a point of view; rather, they are an attempt to remove material from the curriculum or library, thereby restricting the access of others.”

 

Since the books were removed from the curriculum, even if they remain in the library, they fit the ALA’s definition of a ban.

 

More information at https://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/index.cfm

 

From American Indians in Children’s Literature (Debbie Reese)

 

Nation-wide responses to the shut-down of the Mexican American Studies Department at Tucson Unified School District

 

EDUCATIONAL RESPONSES:

 

In Tucson, students walked out of classes on Tuesday and held an Ethnic Studies Teach-In off school grounds. Some were suspended for walking out, and rather than stay home yesterday, they attended Mexican American courses at the University of Arizona. Those are localized educational responses to the shut-down of their classes.

 

A nation-wide educational response in the form of a National Teach-In will take place on February 1st. Some things people can do include the following:

• View excerpts--specially selected for the Teach In--from Precious Knowledge, the documentary about the MAS program that will be aired on PBS in May.
• In elementary classrooms or library read-alouds to elementary-aged children, read aloud from one of the picture books used in the MAS program. Two suggestions are Pam Mora's The Desert is My Mother, Gary Soto's Snapshots from the Wedding.  
• With older students, introduce them to Matt de la Pena's Mexican WhiteBoy or Sandra Cisnero's House on Mango Street. 
• Share what you know with your family, friends, and colleagues. 
• Purchase a copy of Rethinking Columbus or one of the other books that was boxed up and removed from classrooms, or, one of the books that was used in the program.
• Purchase a copy of Precious Knowledge. To order, write to preciousknowledgedvd@gmail.com. (Individual copy is $28. Public library copy is $40. Rights for university or public performance are $200.)
• Sign the petition set up by Norma Gonzales. She taught in the MAS program.
• Donate to the fund to support the work to fight the ban.
  

Another option is to watch "A Teach-in on Tucson" that will take place at Georgia State University's College of Education. Portions of it will be streamed online. Initial information is here.