530 YEARS 6 MONTHS 9 DAYS
Dear Friend,
"Sometimes when you are lost,” a friend once told me, “perhaps it is best to go back to the beginning.”? ?
With so many lives lost, and countless more killed each day as we reel from chaos to crisis to catastrophe; with many losing track, losing heart, losing hope, where is there to go?? What is there to say?? ?
As a journalist and historian, it’s my job—my calling, even—to say something.? Eight years into The Janus Adams Show—"a show about race, every race, and courage"—how could I not say something about this most recent iteration of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian crisis?? But what? ?
Two weeks ago, I read award-winning journalist and New York Times bestselling author Laura Flanders’ article about her interview with Josh Paul―the U.S. State Department official whose letter of resignation was posted online and went viral. ? ? ? ?
“When I came to this Bureau,?the U.S. Government entity most responsible for the transfer and provision of arms to partners and allies, I knew it was not without its moral complexity and moral compromises, and I made myself a promise that I would stay for as long as I felt I the harm I might do could be outweighed by the good I could do. In my 11 years I have made more moral compromises than I can recall, each heavily, but each with my promise to myself in mind, and intact. I am leaving today because I believe that in our current course with regard to the continued, indeed expanded and expedited provision of lethal arms to Israel, I have reached the end of that bargain.? ? ? ?
"We cannot be both against occupation and for it.? We cannot be both for freedom and against it. And we cannot be for a better world, while contributing to one that is materially worse.” ?
Extraordinary.? In a time when death threats—and deaths—are being normalized for the most minimal of alleged infractions, this man put his life and livelihood on the line as a matter of conscience. Yet, with the exception of a few brief interviews on public radio and TV, major media seemed disinterested in what a man with eleven years' experience and expertise had to say; why increased weapons shipments to Israel was a bridge he could not bring himself to cross. ?? ?
Flanders’ interview with Paul was not only an exception; it was exceptional.? As I listened, two points became clear: ?I would host a conversation about the role of journalists and historians in a time of seemingly inexplicable crisis.? The person I most wanted to have that conversation with was the woman who’d broken the blockade on Paul’s letter, Laura Flanders. ? ?
On Friday, November 3, we met for our interview in the studios of WJFF Radio Catskill in Liberty, New York (how appropriate is that?!).? A former war correspondent, she spoke of lessons learned while covering “The Troubles”―that decades-long conflict in Northern Ireland between republican and loyalist paramilitaries, British forces, and civil rights activists that took 3,500 lives: ?
“You go to a place that you've been taught to be afraid of, and people who you've been told to be afraid of your whole life. And you realize, these very people have lessons to teach you that are invaluable.... A lot of them had to do with the perspective from which you look at any given struggle and when you start the clock. ?For example, if you start the clock on the Irish Republican Army (IRA) bombing in Brighton that targeted conservative members of parliament during their convention, then the Irish are the problem; terrorism is the problem. ?But, the Irish would say, “Start the clock in the 1600s!” (with the expansion of the British Empire).? The same with Belfast. The same with Palestine. ?The same with Israel. Do you start the clock on October 7, that horrendous terror attack by Hamas? Or do you go back and say: what's the grievance that brought this situation about? What's the grievance that's been festering?” ?? ?
When you start the clock.? That was the takeaway that jogged me back to my friend’s counsel, when you are lost, perhaps it is best to go back to the beginning. The “beginning” was May 4, 1493 when Pope Alexander VI issued “Inter Caetera,” a papal bull (decree) granting Spain and Portugal the right to do egregious wrong: to conquer, colonize, convert, and enslave the non-Catholic world. ? ?
“... By the authority of Almighty God conferred upon us and of the vicarship of Jesus Christ which we hold on earth, do ... give, grant, and assign to you and your heirs and successors, kings of Castile and Leon, forever, together with all their dominions, cities, camps, places, and villages, and all rights, jurisdictions, and appurtenances, all islands and mainlands found and to be found, discovered and to be discovered towards the west and south, by drawing and establishing a line from the Arctic pole, namely the north, to the Antarctic pole.... With this proviso however that none of the islands and mainlands... be in the actual possession of any Christian king."
领英推荐
—Pope Alexander VI
530 years 6 months 9 days later, the non-Euro-Christian world (hundreds of millions of people of color worldwide) is still plagued by the hubris of one powerful man dispensing favors (seized lands and taxes) to two other powerful men, crowned heads of Spain and Portugal, in exchange for “souls” (congregants, their descendants and tithes); unleashing the reign of terror euphemistically sanitized as “The Age of Exploration.” ?
Going back not quite to the beginning, the United Nations’ “The Question of Palestine” is a 140-year timeline of European terror against Indigenous peoples worldwide and (with France, England, Italy, and the Church of England wanting in on the action) conflicts through World Wars I and II) that have caused the current crisis. ?
It’s really quite a clock.? It’s also quite an interview with Laura Flanders―one you’ll absolutely want to hear not just for what it says about the past, but what it means to you and our collective future. ?
ON THE SHOW AND PODCAST
LAURA FLANDERS: SETTING THE CLOCK
THE JANUS ADAMS SHOW airs and streams live Saturdays at 11:00 AM (ET) on WJFF Radio Catskill. Click 'LISTEN LIVE' on the home page.