I’m pleased to say that my colleagues and I will be releasing to the public an elegant bi-lingual (with Arabic and English on facing pages) pocket edition of the American Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution on Capitol Hill this Thursday. The event, “Building Foundations for Freedom, Commerce, and Peace in the Middle East,” will be opened by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and will also feature presentations by Zainab al-Suwaij of the American Islamic Congress and my humble self.
This is fantastic.
Can I suggest you put out both bi-lingual and Arabic only? I think many books were just translated into Slovak, but would even sell better if they were bi-lingual, since so many students are looking to learn English.
I can’t tell you how grateful I am to find that someone has finally put this right. Just this afternoonI wrote the following to another friend who was hoping with me that reason might prevail:
“Maybe I’m nuts, but I have a problem I can’t seem to get beyond, and the talking heads of the present season are not helping.
It has to do with the POINT – “Getting The Point!”
Every now and then there are times in history when humanity approaches “getting the point”. In my understanding one of those times was 1776, when some of the better representatives of the species, not only got pretty close to the point, but managed to get a good piece of it in writing, the writing known to us as “The Declaration of Independence.”
The stated purpose of its writing was “… a decent respect for the opinions of mankind…”, Do you suppose that would be something like “world opinion?”
In our own time, even at the moment, there is once again a lot of talk and alleged concern for “world opinion”. Seems like it’s directed at us, and it’s not good. I guess if you’re going to go around dropping bombs on people you ought to have a good reason. Seems like in our own day, they are mutually exclusive – “bombs” or “reasons” – let’s see now… :-\
I like to think of reason as the process by which we finally “get the point.” What’s troubling me right at the moment is that there was a time in our seemingly forgotten past when this nation as a nation got the point, and wrote it down.
Originally published in the German language, throughout the years of the 20th Century, The United States State Department only had it available in English, French and Spanish. Perhaps the Germans lived too close to our cold war enemies, and we didn’t want then to find out what we use to stand for. The silence or reasoning continues to be deafening.
It is difficult not to conclude that the talking heads would rather we ourselves did not rediscover the point of our own existence as a nation.
So here we are in the 21st Century with a new enemy, this time one that mostly speaks Arabic, and Arabic isn’t even an option on “AltaVista Translations.” In short, there is no provision for reason, only bombs and bullets.
What’s wrong with this picture???
“Truth Justice, and The American Way” appear to be obsolete, or, at least not on the radar where the American State Department, the Bush administration, the U.S. Congress, and the American media are concerned. If the Declaration of Independence is no longer politically correct, then perhaps it’s time, past time, for us to stop shooting people.
Somewhere it is written, “Come let us reason together Saith The Lord…” The Context is is too close to miss. Isaiah 1: 1-31.
Gates or Rumsfeld, it hardly matters if the C.I.A. doesn’t have the intelligence to rediscover the Declaration.”