Seymour Hersh and CHC Events

Katie D.

February 21, 2010 - 2:56 PM

This was a week of many events. Not only did Monday start off with a bang-Reverend Jesse Jackson and the Holden Leadership Symposium-but the week finished with a campus visit by Seymour Hersh, the Pulitzer Prize winning journalist responsible for some of the most important investigative reporting on US wars in the last forty years.

Seymour Hersh is UO President Lariviere's first Presidential Lecturer. Hersh not only gave a public lecture for the university, but also attended meetings with several classes and faculty groups, providing many members of the campus community with an opportunity to meet with him and discuss his writing, his perspectives on torture and US foreign policy, and the role of journalism in the world today.

Because of this, I had the opportunity to hear Hersh speak multiple times. I was unable to attend the Thursday night presentation, but I hear his speech was excellent. On Friday morning he joined my FHS 407 seminar class on Torture and Foreign Policy for a breakfast. While sharing a meal of waffles and fruit, my classmates and I had a chance to really converse with him about his life and work, and his views about some of the most complex issues facing the US today. I found Seymour Hersh to be more than knowledgeable about the issues: his grasp of the military situation in the Middle East extends deeply into the lives and stories of hundreds of people he has interviewed and known over the years. This includes anonymous sources, whose stories he sometimes told us only in the vaguest of terms in order to not cross lines of confidentiality.

This man not only broke the recent military scandal of torture at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, but also was instrumental in the coverage of the Vietnam War and the My Lai massacre of Vietnamese civilians. This man, with his deep understanding of the atrocities possible in war, also has a deep compassion and commitment to the military personnel of the US armed forces. He spoke about the impossible situations our armed personnel face, often with inadequate or inappropriate training for the situations they are thrown into. (Example: National Guardsmen trained in traffic control ending up in charge of prisoner control at a secret prison) As someone with several family members and friends who are either currently enlisted in the military forces or have already served in active duty overseas, Hersh's perspective is an important one: he addresses critical issues and does not equivocate on the morality of the question of prisoner abuse, but does not demonize the individual soldiers.

In addition to joining my FHS class for breakfast, Hersh also appeared at an event in Portland for UO Clark Honors College alumni, UO donors, and interested community members. I attended this event at the White Stag building in Portland as a representative of the Honors College student body, and to present about the Inside-Out Program and the opportunities I have had through my participation in the Clark Honors College.

It was an incredible series of events, including many opportunities to speak with people who have contributed to the UO and the CHC, and who are invested in maintaining the excellence and dynamism of the University. It was wonderful to meet these people, to hear their stories, and to share my own.

Additionally, I attended a CHC Alumni Council meeting, where we discussed the state of the Honors College and its future goals, including the celebrations of the fiftieth anniversary of the Clark Honors College at the University of Oregon. This will include many events in the next year and a half involving alumni and current students, online interviews and archives, visiting alumni presentations, and special events at the Shakespeare Festival and the Bach Festival.

Last night the first of the celebrations of the anniversary was held in Eugene at the Hult Center, following a performance of Avenue Q, a Broadway play written by a CHC alum. The cast party included not only cast, but CHC alumni and more than seventy-five current students.

It's a wonderful thing to meet people who have been a part of the Honors College for years, and who still feel that their college experience was important enough to continue attending events and contributing their money and time to ensure its continued impact on current students. I know that these four years have been some of the most important in my life, and that I will remember them forever. I'm glad I'm not alone in this.

There will be many more events of this kind to report on in the coming months. Be on the look out! And if you're in town you should consider attending. Want an insider tip? Two words: chocolate fountain.