Ah, the whirring of machines on the factory floor, the whistle of happy workers with thoughts of solidarity on their minds and revolution in their hearts; it reminds me of Pyongyang in springtime. Where can one find such a communist paradise closer to home? Look no further than the AU Tavern, where last Thursday night 'folk singer' David Rovics painted this cheerful picture of civilization in his song "After the Revolution" as part of Palestine Awareness Week (PAW). Now, for those of us at AU with political beliefs anywhere marginally right of Marxism, we have become accustomed to the near constant banter of liberal professors and incessant Bush bashing of fellow students. This is not to say that many reasoned, thought out and logical arguments are not articulated often by many voices from the left at AU. None of Mr. Rovics' statements or songs, however, rose to this level, and his anti-establishment, anti-globalization and anti-American political views masked more important matters - most significantly, Mr. Rovics' permission to perform at PAW. Sadly, his performance proved to be an embarrassment to PAW, which was forced to tolerate a de facto hijacking (at least for one night) by an individual with an excessively radical agenda, robbing PAW of some legitimacy and undermining a worthy cause.
As happens too frequently on both sides of the political spectrum, radical elements of certain movements have the ability to detract from the overall merit of a cause, and this is precisely what occurred last Thursday night. By allowing Mr. Rovics to sing of forming "collective farms" and the freeing of "neo-colonies," PAW undermined its valiant and otherwise successful attempt to increase attentiveness to the plight of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians still displaced from their homes, an issue that receives little attention in the press today.
SIS graduate student Nathan Stock recently highlighted in The Eagle a few of the events that were to be included for PAW ("Palestinians to Educate on the Quad," April 5, Page 5). He described a variety of planned projects, both cultural and academic, capped off by speeches by professors from DePaul University and Randolph Macon College. Why, then, was the decision made to include Mr. Rovics' mindless manifestos? They did nothing to encourage intelligent discourse on the subject, and in fact diminished what was otherwise a well-organized and informative program.
In the future, the organizers of PAW would do well to avoid any association with the likes of Mr. Rovics; his principles are all too well portrayed in some of his other song lyrics, revealing his visceral hatred for all things American. He sings proudly of burning the American flag: "So burn it, stomp it, tear it up ... drag it on the ground..." in "The Flag Desecration Rag" and describes police officers as drug-using child abusers who "serve the rich" by "beating the poor" in "Love Song for the Cops." Like any good radical lefty, Mr. Rovics' virulent cussing inevitably led him to tritely denounce President Bush (and surprisingly, Dr. Henry Kissinger). Appropriately though, few in the audience cheered at the conclusion of most songs, offering the optimistic hope that Mr. Rovics' anarchic diatribes had not resonated with most in attendance. Perhaps he might have found a more hospitable audience in Pyongyang; after all, "the revolution" has been "over" in that city for more than 60 years.
