Fighting Terror from the Ivory Tower
The day after the 2000 election, I hopped onto an empty elevator in an office building in downtown Minneapolis. It was early and, after a long night of watching the state of Florida turn into Venezuela, my eyes were aching, my paper coffee cup was shaking, and I was giddy from lack of sleep.
An smartly groomed businessman, wearing a tailored business suit and a pair of just-polished cowboy boots got on the elevator a floor later. He looked me up an down, then broke into a welcoming smile. "Long night?" the fifty-something, father-type laughed. I just shook my head with a groan. "Crazy stuff," he agreed.
I asked him how long he had managed to stay awake the nigh before. I asked him what he thought would happen. He wondered where I worked, wanted to know how long I'd lived in the Twin Cities. We had an instant rapport. In the time it took the elevator to climb the ten floors to his stop we were on a first name basis. He even knew how long I'd been married.
"Well, I guess we'll see what happens," I said as we shook hands and he got off the elevator. "I guess we will," he smiled. Then, just as the elevator door began to shut, he turned and looked me level in the eye. "One thing we know for sure though," he said, the tone of his voice still gleeful, but somehow more menacing. "Ivy intellectuals need not apply. They can go back to their ivory tower and watch while the rest of us get something done."
The exchange puzzled me for days. Was the guy playing me? Was he serious? Did I say something to make him think he should call out my politics? Or, like the guys in the steam room at the local gym where I play hoops, does he just assume every red-blooded American male with a firm handshake votes Republican?
I was reminded of my elevator ride this morning, when I came across the following headline in the San Francisco Chronicle: "Master's in National Security Offered."
Seems the fight against terror has made its way into the Ivory Tower. And I couldn't help but wonder what my elevator mate must be thinking now. "Seeking to train specialists for the war on terrorism, Sandia National Laboratory in Livermore announced Monday that it was joining with an East Coast university to offer the nation's first master's degree in National Security and Public Safety," the article, written by Chronicle staff writer Tanya Schevitz, begins.
"The innovative new master's degree, which will be awarded through the University of New Haven in Connecticut, will focus on homeland security and information protection as well as national security. Classes will be held at the lab, and interested students will need to pass a security clearance to attend.
"The program is part of a trend among U.S. colleges and universities to integrate courses responding to the terrorist attacks into their curriculum. Many schools have established new courses on national security, Islamic studies, technology and intelligence since Sept. 11. Just this week, at the annual meeting of the Association of American Medical Colleges, college representatives are discussing how to include bioterrorism training in the medical curriculum."
Of course, the program--slated to begin later this month with a freshman class of 15--is limited to U.S. citizens, because the pupils need to pass through a security clearance. And while the eager youngsters will study military tribunals and bioterrorism, I didn't get the vibe from the Chronicle piece that either ethics or international law would discussed or considered. Apparently that will have to be done by those other Ivy league intellectuals who are wasting time while the rest of us get something done.
11:42:01 AM 
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