Tuesday, November 10, 2009

American Red Cross co-sponsors hate speech

A friend with a remarkably pink blog kindly alerts me to an utterly odious situation.

QUOTE:
The Stanford Department of Drama and the Stanford Theatre Activist Mobilization Project (STAMP) are proud to announce a staged reading - the San Francisco Bay Area premiere - of the thought-provoking play, My Name is Rachel Corrie.
The performances feature an impressive line-up of post-show discussion speakers including Rabbi Michael Lerner, Professor Joel Beinin, and Professor Tom Sheehan.


This event is Free & Open to the public. Please email stanfordrachelcorrie@gmail.com to reserve tickets.

My Name is Rachel Corrie is Co-Sponsored by: American Red Cross, Amnesty International, Coalition for Justice in the Middle East, Emma Goldman Society for Queer Liberation, Jewish Voice for Peace, Muslim Student Awareness Network, Peninsula Peace and Justice Center, Physicians for Human Rights, Stanford Says No to War, Stanford University Students for UNICEF, and Students Confronting Apartheid by Israel.
END QUOTE.

The American Red Cross? Aren't they supposed to be 'apolitical'?

Surely their sponsorship is a horrible mistake? Perhaps an agent from the other side infests a local branch of an otherwise sometimes commendable organization? And that suspicion is not entirely unfounded - the Red Cross was notorious for several decades for refusing linkage with Magen David Adom, on the spurious grounds that the Seal of Solomon, symbol of Magen David Adom (literal translation: Red Shield of David) was a religious symbol, quite unlike the cross or the crescent.

Often otherwise excellent groupss will find themselves subverted by those who would make of them mere front-organizations.

Pro-Palestinism is as much a religion as any other, and has quite as many strictures which to the skeptic seem irrational. The Red Cross may have fanatics among its ranks.
I shall henceforth not contribute even one paise to their cause.

For shame, bloodsuckers, for shame.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is this the exact same Red Cross that has never managed to have contact with Gilad Shalit despite having no problems being in contact with Hamas?

Anonymous said...

Is this the exact same Red Cross that has never managed to have contact with Gilad Shalit despite having no problems being in contact with Hamas?

Cynthia Shaw said...

Thank you for your concern about the improper use of the American Red Cross name. The Red Cross Club at Stanford University was asked to sponsorship an event on human rights. When the Club said no, the organizers ask if they could list the Red Cross as an human rights organization in order to give the Red Cross Club some visibility on campus. The local Chapter upon becoming aware of the situation has already asked the producer to remove our name from all materials. We received this email confirmation:


----- Forwarded Message -----
From: "Michael Vang" mvang@stanford.edu
Sent: Monday, November 9, 2009 11:28:10 PM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific
Subject: Re: My Name is Rachel Corrie: Bio deadline tonight!

Greetings,

For all promotional material henceforward, American Red Cross will not be included in the cosponsorship list. We have contacted the person who is creating our programs to remove your name before it goes to press and I have contacted the Drama Department's media contact who has access to the events.stanford.edu site to remove your name from the co-sponsorship list. Your name has been removed from the facebook event and the eflyer as well. I hope this is satsifactory and I'm sorry that we weren't able to make a cosponsorship work.

Best,
Michael Vang
Producer, My Name is Rachel Corrie

The department website has already remove our name from their listing. See: http://www.stanford.edu/dept/drama/0910_events/rachel-corrie.html We are working to get all the other departments and students clubs promoting the reading to update their listings as well. Although the groups - the Stanford Arts Group and Stanford Theatre Activist Mobilization Project (STAMP) has not returned any of our multiple phone calls or emails to ask for the removal of the improper use of our name.

Anonymous said...

As of Tuesday, Nov. 17th at 11:20 p.m. EST, the Stanford Arts Group STILL lists the ARC as a "sponsor" of the play.