THE SENIOR MEN'S CLUB OF NEW CANAAN
Minutes of the Regular Meeting of January 25, 2002
President Lee Hindenach opened the business meeting at 9:58 on a clear and breezy day
with 179 members present. We have 500 members and 37 waiting. We welcomed guest Bob Spence.
Membership Concerns: Bob Conner and Harry Caesar are in Norwalk Hospital, Harry as a
transfer from Waveny .No callers just yet, please.
Activities: Bowling today, as usual. Last week Bill Pierson rolled a 235 and 513 series.
Bridge here at 11:30. Eric Petschek has only 5 for 4F lunch today at Nino's; he seeks more.
Paddle prospers, aided by our taxpayer dollars which supply gas heaters to de-ice the courts.
Racketball continues its new policy of invisible anonymity.
Couth. The bus leaves at 6:45 PM on February 2znd for the Bridgeport Cabaret Theater. Unof-
ficial Couth publicist Bob Witt gave us 10 reasons to attend the Philadelphia Flower Show.
The Culinary Institute is on for April and the Bronx Zoo for May, reversing the schedule
shown in our February newsletter. Six vacancies remain for the Washington trip in April.
Announcements: Lee read an e-mail from Wendy Lucas, head of the Friends of the Library; she
seeks a volunteer to prepare publicity for events there. And Huck Wood presented slides
showing the benefits which accrue to participants in "Touch the Future". Huck has benefited by
being able to award himself a somewhat delayed wwn promotion from Navy lieutenant to captain.
Resident Humorist: John Berg documented a failed attempt to stop a small boy's profanity.
Speaker: VP Ron Seger introduced our New Canaan neighbor Dr. David DeRosa, whose
impeccable educational and career credentials include many years' exposure to the middle
east. David spoke on Arab response to the events of 9/11, which was less supportive than we had
hoped because of a "yes, but" attitude. Yes 9/11 was bad, but didn't the U.S.
help create four
areas of conflict: the creation of Israel; the western induced plight of the Palestinians, which
burdens the neighbors; the Arab diaspora, which has been driven to radicalism; and the "face
of terror" image which we have hung on all Arabs. This attitude grows in spite of every
recent U.S. president's efforts at peace. It is fed by 500 years of decline in Muslim nations,
relative to the
West, and present per capita income figures in the Arab world which are abysmal. We are seen
as assaulting their values while extracting their petroleum wealth, and the relatively
painless crushing of Iraq and the Taliban erodes their images of independence or even
competence.
Dr. DeRosa supports our present course but warns that some
major Arab nations are
increasingly unstable, which will probably increase their alienation from us. However,
we must persist, and we can only hope to hold old friends or get new ones, like Russia
and even Iran.
Questions produced more DeRosa opinions, such as: We should strike Iraq preemptively.
Ararat has no power base left; the Kurds will remain an oppressed minority. Turkey is a
financial basket case, but an ally. Nation building in Afghanistan will be tough
because it isn't one. The Arab world is terrified of the U.S. military, with cause.
Bin Laden may be dead but has certainly
vanished. The Chinese applaud our actions because it lets them persecute their Muslim
minority. David's lucent presentation did much to dispel for us his own admonition:
"If you're not
totally confused about the Mideast, then you don't understand it."
Peter Schurman - Assistant Secretary