Our most recent visitor, Emi Koyama, was both blasphemous–in the sense that she was unafraid to question established political truisms and common ideological positions–and truly likable. This delicate balance of political blasphemy and sociability is, I believe, an exceptional quality, one lacking both on the right and on the left in contemporary US politics. Most of those who specialize in the biting criticisms I tend to associate with political blasphemy come off as insensitive to the nuances of complex situations. Emi-san, by contrast, was both politically volatile and sensitive to the fact that reasonable people might differ. There is certainly something that we can all–or at least I–can learn from the way she comports herself.
It is unfortunate that we did not have time in class to discuss the issue of transracial adoption/abduction, and that I was unable to make the class dinner where such a discussion could have taken place. However, I feel certain that had such a discussion taken place, Emi would have taken my position seriously–even if we agreed to disagree.
Continuing with a discussion of Emi’s activist methodology, there was one point on which I felt she sold herself short, namely her contention that she was afraid to take on larger issues such as the war in Iraq. She noted in class that taking on such an issue would be too difficult due to the magnitude of the problem. This is, I believe, disingenuous and overly modest on her part. Indeed, working on such issues as intersex discrimination is no small feat. It requires changing societies basic attitudes about disability and sexual normalcy. To say that these are small issues is simply untrue.
Finally, since I was unable to have a discussion with Emi concerning issues of transracial adoption in person, I would love to have one electronically. Thus, Emi, if you are reading this blog, I would be highly interested in having some sort of electronic debate, either here or on eminism.
Thanks so much for coming. Besides providing us with a stellar example of how to balance biting political criticism with human understanding, you also left me with some entertaining memories–I was laughing to myself just this morning recalling your story about snail sexual dances.
