blackwater baby

As I was mindlessly checking the campus announcements this week, I was shocked to find that the Vice-Chairman of Blackwater would be speaking. So, yesterday, I locked my office and headed over to the Behavioral Science building wondering if anyone would have the courage to address or was aware of Blackwater’s recent fame. After a fascinating trajectory on counterterrorism and 9/11, Black took questions. The closest we came to touching Blackwater was a student inquiring about his involvement with the company. I didn’t say anything. Being new to LCU, I decided that this wasn’t the setting to expose my own political views.

The visited class was a criminal justice course. Most of the students are going into law enforcement. Some Homeland Security. A visiting academic asked if any had considered international service. No one responded. He then commented that West Texas is the hardest region of the United States to recruit people for international service. No one wants to leave.

I think it is this underlying lack of desire to know or care about the rest of the world that is hardest about being here. Often it’s not intentional or even conscious, but some Texans literally feel as if Texas is America. There is no need even to venture out of state lines, let alone outside of the country. I can’t really blame some for this attitude, and I definitely do not want to cast a negative stereotype on all Texans. However, for many, there entire lives are rooted in this region. It requires significant feats of imagination or exposure to other culture to push people outside their cultural framework – and these types of experiences are hard to come by. Movement beyond Texas also requires in some ways a renunciation of one’s particular loyalties, and in a region of the country that is so deeply fed by such loyalties, the choice to leave can be agonizing and alienating.


Living in Texas has had the opposite effect for me. It has ignited a fierce desire to stay in touch with the rest of the world. In the words of President Eaton to “know what’s going on in the world” (I never thought I would be quoting Eaton, but it’s the first thing that came to mind). Awareness has never felt more necessary – especially when information is so inaccessible. I don’t know what I would do without the internet portal to independent news sources. However, I still feel so defeated, so far away. Awareness is only one step, and what good does it really do to intellectually engage with what is going on in the world, when everything feels so far away. And what about the needs of this community? I’m struggling to reconcile my particular location with the needs and issues that weigh heavy on my mind and heart nationally and globally: the war in Iraq, human rights abuses, Sudan, Palestine, US foreign policy, racism in America, displaced peoples.

One of the most inspiring aspects of this last week – for now – is the protests in Burma. Perhaps along with the rest of the world, I am holding my breath. Praying that this will be a triumph of peace and justice, hoping that this will not turn into violence and repression. We’ll see.

Accounts from Burma