Still Banned in Saudi Arabia, and also in Albuquerque, NM

More than three months have passed since my letter was sent to the new Minister of Information, Mr. Abdul Aziz Al Khoja, requesting a reversal of the ban within Saudi Arabia on “If Olaya Street Could Talk.” When Mr. Al Khoja assumed his new position he promised a more open policy concerning the dissemination of information within the Kingdom. My request was at least one litmus test on how “open” his new policy would be. He has not responded to my letter, so clearly in the case of this book he has decided that the safest option is to do nothing.

But is the book really banned in Albuquerque, NM? Not in a literally sense; it is available at Borders in the ABQ uptown mall, at the University of New Mexico bookstore, and in the Albuquerque public libraries. So why say that it is banned? Because the book was not written for the Saudi market, but rather Americans. And although the book is not literally banned, certainly some of the central themes are “inconvenient truths” that many individuals in leadership positions in America are unwilling to address. We are in the most serious economic turmoil since the Great Depression. One of the most significant contributing factors has been the American government’s willingness to engage in endless war, without raising taxes, but rather borrowing the money. Instinctively Americans know that this policy is not sustainable, but we have engaged in it anyhow.

One of the themes in “If Olaya Street Could Talk” concerns how our schools prepare our young to accept an ideology involving conflict with “the other.” An entire chapter of the book is devoted to my children’s experience, in a private school in Atlanta, in the early 1990’s. The epigraph for the chapter is Pete Seeger’s classic song: “What Did You Learn in School Today, Dear Little Child of Mine.” Another portion of the book related my son’s experience at La Cueva High School in Albuquerque when he spoke out against the Iraq War in 2003.

America fortunately has a new President. He has shown a willingness to engage in a positive fashion the Islamic World, in an attempt to overcome the legacy of the past eight years. America is now running trillion dollar deficits. Part of that printed money will be directed to improving our nation’s education system. So I took the initiative to write Dr. Veronica C Garcia, the Secretary of Education for New Mexico, as well as Mr. Winston Brooks, the Superintendent of the Albuquerque Public Schools. The essence of both letters is: shouldn’t we take some of the money granted by the Federal Government, and review the curriculum in our schools concerning the Islamic world? Likewise, it has been three months since those letters were sent, and there is an exact parallel with Mr. Al Khoja’s actions: the safest option is to do nothing.

We will only end endless war when we have individuals in leadership positions who realize why they hold that position: address the central problems of our times, and formulate and implement constructive solutions.

Note: Previous history of the banning of the book in Saudi Arabia