Dennis Ross, the White House Iran policy czar and Paul Simon, the songwriter, are each receiving honorary degrees at Brandeis University on May 23.
So are "Paul Farmer, a founder of Partners in Health; the Honorable Judith S. Kaye, the first woman to serve as chief judge of New York State; Spanish author Antonio Muñoz Molina, a leading interpreter of the modern European experience," the Brandeis release says, and so is Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren, who will also deliver the commencement speech.
Oren likes policy and he likes rock’n’roll, so maybe this subliminally sparked the following, or maybe I’m just bored.
Delivering a message: Paul Simon in 1968, Dennis Ross in 2010
Paul Simon: "Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike, They’ve all come to look for America."
Dennis Ross: "Imagine the Middle East as the New Jersey Turnpike, with multiple competing narratives speeding forward, not quite ready to articulate what the endgame is, or perhaps, not even certain there is an endgame — the point, after all, might be driving itself, or the sense of control that driving delivers, especially when changing lanes at speeds five miles faster than the speed limit, which is, as everyone on this bus realizes, 65 miles per hour. The challenge, then, is how you encourage the drivers to subjugate their natural tendency to speed to the realization of the mutuality of driving. You ask them, forcefully, what are they looking for? The GW Bridge exit? The Joyce Kilmer rest stop? Or America itself? And if it is America they are searching for, how does America deliver without compromising its own narrative?"
Kathy, by the way, is still sleeping.
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