October 8, 2007

I’ve survived (just barely) a West Coast swing on the book-tour circuit: five talks in three days at Stanford University, the World Affairs Council of San Francisco, San Jose State University’s Magazine Day, the University of Washington in Seattle, and Seattle's Northwest chapter of the American Society of Media Photographers. Just a few words about my visit to the schools…

Stanford was engaging, to say the least. We assembled in the campus bookstore for a slideshow and discussion, at the invitation of a faculty member and friend, Glenn Frankel, formerly of The Washington Post. Near the end of the question-and-answer session, one older, clean-cut, scowling man became incensed at my skepticism toward 9/11 conspiracy theories. “I’d like to throw a chair at you,” he said, barely containing his anger. While I have received e-mails voicing similar animus (the majority, in fact, from California), it is rare that such discussions escalate to threats of real-world physical violence. (Note: Those who buy into 9/11 conspiracy theories almost always sit on the fringes of the crowd, literally and figuratively.)

I tried my best to diffuse the situation by saying, “That’s one of the things about a democracy, about open dialogue. You and I can look at the evidence, raise questions, debate, and respectfully disagree.” I went on: “Just because the Bush administration was negligent, inept, irresponsible, and bureaucratically lumbering, does not imply complicity or malfeasance. It would have been beyond the administration’s capacity to plan and keep secret so vast a conspiracy” (meaning: to assist al-Qaeda in attacking the U.S. as an excuse to invade Iraq). “I refuse to believe that the Pentagon,” as I have before on this Web site, “bombed the Pentagon.”

He just couldn’t believe, he told me after the booksigning, that I had spent so much time looking at so much evidence about the attacks and had come to an opinion that was diametrically opposed to his own. That, somehow, seemed the most galling to him: that my view of the attacks (and perhaps my world view) clashed with his so completely.

The next day, SJSU’s students came out in force, thanks to the inspiring faculty, engaged kids, and the institution’s long-standing commitment to the craft of journalism – in part through an aggressive effort to help students interact with journalists through field trips, lectures, internships, and jobs.

THE SJSU CROWD ON MAGAZINE DAY

And I couldn’t have asked for a more attentive reception than the one I received at the University of Washington, an event orchestrated, in part, by the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma (to which I donate some of the funds from the sale of Watching the World Change).