Crashing the Party
Let me introduce myself -- I'm a semi-regular contributor to the op-ed pages of the Daily News. Some more info on me can be found here. (You'll notice that the Daily News is mentioned before those cross-town people.)
I'm grateful to Mr. Weinkopf for the chance to be a part of Friendly Fire. I have immense admiration for Chris, the kind of honest, principled, yet intellectually supple writer who is too rare in our day. Okay, enough apple-polishing.
I grew up with one foot in America and one foot in Pakistan, which seemed a rather boring matter until Pakistan ended up becoming the key front in the war on terror (yeah, yeah, I know Iraq is the key front, but c'mon....). Now I spend a great deal of time trying to make sense of how my two homelands collided in such remarkable ways. As one who has lived in both places, I feel that precious few people on either side "get" the other side. And I see that as a huge challenge for us as Americans going forward. Yes, I do see my identity as fundamentally "American," although I'm also comfortable with the "Pakistani" hyphen.
I'm politically independent; but though I often criticize the president, I'm ultimately more of a libertarian than a liberal. And I look forward to being caught in the friendly fire here!
Comments
Dear Rob,
You can't crash a party to which you've been invited. You are most welcome by all (until you write something controversial; then all bets are off).
I look forward to your unique perspective. As a Jewish-American who specializes in Islam (in a friendly way, having lived happily in Arab lands) I'll see your hyphen, as I see mine and that is not as a minus sign but a real positive plus+!
Welcome.
Jonathan Dobrer
Posted by: jonathan dobrer | November 26, 2007 11:22 AM
Welcome aboard, Rob!
Posted by: Chris Weinkopf | November 26, 2007 11:26 AM
Thanks, folks! Jonathan, your comment reminds me of Gary Shandling's old comment, something like, "I'm scaling back my social life -- it's gotten to the point that, if I'm not invited to a party, I don't even go anymore."
Posted by: Rob A. | November 26, 2007 3:25 PM