Cambridge Activist Finds a Home
“The problem with Israel,” wrote Aimee Smith in the MIT student paper, “is that it is a racist, colonial, settler state built on ethnically cleansed lands.” Some would merely call it a “Western Cultural Imperialis[t]” state, but that’s just (matzo-)mealy-mouthed Israel-pandering, she argued.
We remember Smith’s, um, activism from our days out East. So after years of complaining about how much we miss Cambridge, we probably deserve it: she seems to have suddenly (well, as in a year or so ago) appeared in A2.
We would ask why it couldn’t have been Toscanini’s ice cream that followed us out here instead, but now they’re begging for money on the Internet after being busted for tax evasion.
ok, but something like this:
“Just as most Muslims reject the actions of the 9/11 hijackers, many Jews reject Zionism as a form of racism that has attempted to hijack their faith.”
is much better than i expected from your post. maybe she is annoyingly righteous in person, but from the article, i cannot really tell. or are you just welcoming her?
and that toscanini place looks really yummy. poor guys… what would be the ann arbor equivalent to that? (hehehe…)
posted by Anonymous on March 11th, 2008 at 10:42 amok, but something like this:
“Just as most Muslims reject the actions of the 9/11 hijackers, many Jews reject Zionism as a form of racism that has attempted to hijack their faith.”
is much better than i expected from your post. maybe she is annoyingly righteous in person, but from the article, i cannot really tell. or are you just welcoming her?
and that toscanini place looks really yummy. poor guys… what would be the ann arbor equivalent to that? (hehehe…)
posted by Fernando on March 11th, 2008 at 10:42 amAimee Smith is in Ann Arbor now?! It boggles the mind. More fun with Aimee… defacing frat party posters. She’s definitely controversial, to say the least.
And I was visiting Boston when Tosci’s closed. There was a mad rush on LaVerde’s to buy out the remaining stock of their ice cream. I don’t think there is an Ann Arbor equivalent… maybe Stucchi’s, but they don’t have the diversity of flavors.
posted by MIT alum gone to Michigan on March 11th, 2008 at 12:08 pmCourse/year/living group? (XVIII/’99/Senior House for me.)
posted by ann arbor is overrated on March 11th, 2008 at 12:10 pmSooner or later America will need to address the incompatibility between its foreign policy of supporting Israel no matter what it does and its domestic need for a large and growing river of imported oil that can only be supplied by muslim populated countries.
posted by herb on March 11th, 2008 at 12:26 pmAlthough the price of oil is determined by world markets, American oil as a physical substance that is processed in American refineries comes largely from Canada, Mexico, and South America (not to mention America itself).
posted by jcp2 on March 11th, 2008 at 12:41 pmXVIIIC/VIII, ‘04, EC
(You actually know me… I’m in the same department as you now. I left myself anonymous because… it seemed the thing to do?)
posted by MIT alum gone to Michigan on March 11th, 2008 at 3:17 pmHeh, small world.
posted by ann arbor is overrated on March 11th, 2008 at 3:53 pmI thought aaio WAS Aimee Smith.
Dang.
posted by David Boyle on March 11th, 2008 at 5:04 pmOf COURSE Aimee Smith is here, y’all. She’s the one at the 4th of July parades screaming into the bullhorn. I think she’s always got the bullhorn with her. . .
posted by OWSider on March 11th, 2008 at 7:52 pmYes, she’s been here for several years. Trust me - I’m a part of two of the many organizations she and the Jewish Witnesses for Peace were protesting/disrupting/interrupting/yelling (Aka making it hell for anybody working on these issues in a rational way, and actively turning people AGAINST the cause of justice for Palestinians because of their actions). I could never quite figure her out - sometimes she’s quite rational (this column has moments of that), and other time not.
posted by Louise on March 12th, 2008 at 3:38 amAccording to http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/company_level_imports/current/import.html, current US oil import sources are Canada 1.8 million barrels/day, Saudi Arabia 1.7, then Mexico, Venezuela and Nigeria at about 1.2 each. US domestic production is declining and demand increasing. Only Saudi Arabia has significant ability to increase supplies. We can ignore the Palestinians if we want to but sooner or later we will need to consider Saudi interests.
posted by herb on March 12th, 2008 at 7:36 amsometimes she’s quite rational (this column has moments of that), and other time not.
Smith wrote a pretty good column about women in science back in 2000, although I don’t think she helped the cause with the fraternity-poster vandalism that “MIT alum gone to Michigan” links to above. It seems like 9/11 was what pushed her over the edge.
posted by ann arbor is overrated on March 12th, 2008 at 9:37 amWell, 9/11 changed a lot of people. Some began appreciating the unsung heroes in America, others went out and started wearing hijabs.
posted by Tit for Tat on March 12th, 2008 at 2:45 pmkeffiyeh are the new hijabs.
posted by Brandon on March 12th, 2008 at 4:22 pmYou didn’t notice her running against John Dingell for congress back in 2006? And she would have won too, if only Joan Lowenstein and the Zionist dogs from the food coop hadn’t rigged all of the ballots!
posted by Parking Structure Dude! on March 12th, 2008 at 5:26 pmPlease, please, please tell me that this post will act as a honeypot and take some of the Zionazi bullshit off of AU.
posted by js on March 12th, 2008 at 8:38 pmAimee Smith should also be remembered as the videocam operator who captured the arrest scene of Blaine Coleman at the Raymond Tanter speech at U-M that led to the criminal charges against Dr. Catherine Wilkerson. Both her testimony and videotape were introduced as evidence at the Wilkerson trial.
posted by mark koroi on April 26th, 2008 at 3:58 pm