Dear Melissa,<\/p>\n
I did not have access to MSNBC while in Asia over the past week. But the mother of a former student of mine, a very progressive woman, was thoughtful enough to pass on to me a clip of your \u201cOpen Letter\u201d to Edward Snowden. It was only a partial clip and I\u2019ve augmented it with text found online.<\/p>\n
I think I\u2019ve accessed the whole thing, reprinted below with (necessary) comments.<\/p>\n
My first thought was that your Open Letter might be an indirect response to my two open letters to you, in which (in \u2013what I thought was\u2013principled, measured language), I took you to task for trashing a young man who did what he thought was right\u2013exposing the degree of government surveillance of the people (of this country, and the world), taking actions that despite all your efforts and those of your media colleagues, most people in the U.S. see as appropriate whistle-blowing.<\/p>\n
But I would not want to indulge in narcissism. I am an insignificant, marginal figure in academia who occasionally writes for CounterPunch. I will assume you have not <\/i>read my two letters and that they have in no way influenced your thinking.<\/p>\n
But anyway, just at the off-chance that during your busy schedule you\u2019re paying attention\u2026<\/p>\n
As you know, the Obama administration is deeply, deeply embarrassed by the Snowden revelations. It is indeed frightened by them, and by what is to come. Just today Glenn Greenwald\u2013the Guardian <\/i>journalist whom you ought to admire, because he is what you should and maybe could be (that is, a careful analyst of reality)\u2013told an Argentine newspaper, \u201cSnowden has enough information to cause harm to the U.S. government in a single minute than any other person has ever had. The U.S. government should be on its knees every day begging that nothing happen to Snowden, because if something does happen to him, all the information will be revealed and it could be its worst nightmare.\u201d<\/p>\n
The information is not just in his laptops but has been distributed, apparently, insuring that the truth will eventually out.<\/p>\n
The nightmare is in mid-course as we speak. The Chinese, castigated by the U.S. for cyber-spying on the U.S., have learned that they themselves have been subject to infinitely greater violations. The Russians have learned that President Medvedev\u2019s conversations were monitored. Germany\u2019s Angela Merkel, who grew up in East Germany under Stasi rule, is outraged at the degree of U.S. spying on European allies. Normal people in this country are shocked that service providers Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube and Apple have been forced to share their metadata with the U.S. government.<\/p>\n
Has it not occurred to you that maybe this is all wrong? Why is it your instinct to rally to the side of the spy, and to attack the whistle-blower? Think about that, please.<\/p>\n
Do you think that just because Obama is, like yourself, half-African-American a new age has descended upon us, in which the U.S. government is suddenly good no matter what it does? No matter how much it continues the old badness, and in fact relentlessly builds upon it?<\/p>\n
Let us look at what you said in your Open Letter to honest Edward Snowden.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s me, Melissa. I hear you\u2019re looking for a country. Well, wouldn\u2019t you know, I have an idea for you! How about\u2026this one? I know you\u2019re not super pleased with the government these days\u2014and I feel you. \u201c<\/i><\/p>\n
Hmm\u2026.. Do you really feel for him, Melissa? It seems to me that what you feel for him is anger, and indignation that he has so embarrassed the president by exposing him as a Dick Cheney clone.<\/p>\n
And why the flippant tone? This is serious stuff, Melissa. Not a time for levity, much as I like your smile and excellent dental work.<\/p>\n
And isn\u2019t it kind of narcissistic of you<\/i> to begin with \u201cIt\u2019s me, Melissa\u201d? Do you really suppose that in his Moscow exile (imposed by Obama, who\u2019s willing to down planes to prevent his movement) Snowden is following your rich contributions to his story? Pleeeeease, Melissa.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe information you revealed about surveillance raises serious issues about the behaviors of our leaders and how they justify and hide those practices from the public.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
Ok. That much is good. You have to say that, acknowledging \u201cserious issues,\u201d don\u2019t you? Because the alternative would be to say you don\u2019t care<\/i> about \u201cthe behaviors of our leaders\u201d (pre-eminently Obama) and the practices he hides. You have a liberal-progressive reputation to uphold, and somewhere in your head resides a small conscience uncomfortable with what you learned.<\/p>\n
But \u2013dear Melissa\u2013why haven\u2019t you addressed any of those \u201cserious issues\u201d? Why have you devoted 99% of your energies to attacking the man raising<\/i> those serious issues? Why are you so\u2013as we say\u2013\u201ckiss-ass\u201d? I just have to ask.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut, here is the deal: it\u2019s time to come home and face the consequences of the actions for which you are so proud.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
Who, Ms. Pomposity, are you <\/i>to tell him what \u201cthe deal\u201d is, or what \u201cconsequences\u201d he should face? Surely you have enough empathetic ability to\u2013just as a thought experiment\u2013put yourself in his place. He knows enough about justice in the land of Trayvon Martin to want to avoid the U.S. court process. He probably doesn\u2019t crave life imprisonment. It\u2019s all well and good for you to invoke models of civil disobedience such as Gandhi and Martin Luther King, but here we\u2019re talking certain doom. And you from your pulpit of privilege are telling him to just accept that doom. Good job Prof. Harris-Perry.<\/p>\n
Ask your poli sci students if they agree with you on this shit. (They won\u2019t.)<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe your intentions were completely altruistic\u2014it\u2019s not that you wanted attention, but that you wanted us, the public, to know just how much information our government has about us. That is something worth talking about.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
Well then, Melissa, why don\u2019t you talk about it? Why do you avoid it? What\u2019s the real story here? Criminal government misconduct, the vitiation of the Fourth Amendment, or one man\u2019s whistle-blowing?<\/p>\n
And why, having conceded that the man\u2019s intentions might be \u201ccompletely altruistic\u201d do you persistently without any evidence argue otherwise? Have you studied journalism at any point in your life?<\/p>\n
\u201cBut by engaging in this\u00a0Tom Hanks-worthy, border-jumping drama through some of the world\u2019s most totalitarian states, you\u2019re making yourself the story.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
Excuse me, Melissa, but Hong Kong is not <\/i>\u201cone of the world\u2019s most totalitarian societies.\u201d (Do you travel much? Have you been there?) I don\u2019t like the term \u201ctotalitarian\u201d because it is so imprecise, but I\u2019d say it applies to a host of U.S.-backed regimes\u2013including some recently established through U.S. military force\u2013more than to Hong Kong or Russia.<\/p>\n
And how does a flight to Hong Kong and an interview with Glenn Greenwald, a respected constitutional and civil rights lawyer, author of three books about government violation of privacy rights, constitute \u201cdrama\u201d? Or a subsequent civilian flight to Moscow in this post-Cold War era?<\/p>\n
\u201cWe could be talking about whether accessing and monitoring citizen information and communications is constitutional, or whether we should continue to allow a secret court to authorize secret warrants using secret legal opinions.<\/i><\/p>\n
But we\u2019re not. We\u2019re talking about you!\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
Well, Melissa, is the fact that you\u2019re dwelling on him his <\/i>fault? I personally find him quite self-effacing. And the volume of verbiage he\u2019s devoted to himself since June 5 pales in comparison to the verbiage in your tirades against him.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd flight paths between Moscow and Venezuela, and how much of a jerk Glenn Greenwald is.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
Excuse me. Who precisely is talking about Greenwald being a \u201cjerk\u201d? I certainly don\u2019t think he is. Several real jerks have called for him to be tried for treason. Are you on their side? If so, why?<\/p>\n
I understand that fascism appeals to some people for deep-seated psychological reasons, but\u2026you<\/i>?<\/p>\n
\u201cWe could at least be talking about whether the Obama administration is right that your leak jeopardized national security. But we\u2019re not talking about that, Ed.<\/i><\/p>\n
We\u2019re talking about you. I can imagine you\u2019d say, well then stop! Just talk about something else. But here\u2019s the problem, even if your initial leak didn\u2019t compromise national security, your new cloak and dagger game is having real and tangible geopolitical consequences. So, well, we have to talk about\u2026you.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
Again: the fact that you, and others in the media, are talking about Snowden rather than his \u201cleaks\u201d is not his fault. Indeed he protested in one of his (few) communications since the Hong Kong interview that people were talking about his youth and his girlfriend rather than the issues of surveillance he put before the public.<\/p>\n
As for \u201cgeopolitical consequences\u201d\u2026.why must you side with the Obama administration in its relations with the world? Do you think everyone in this country should identify with the State Department calls \u201cnational interest\u201d? Have you ever participated in an antiwar demonstration? Sometimes I positively welcome setbacks to the State Department\u2019s geopolitical goals. (Should I not have that right? Or should I, like you, automatically embrace those goals without even thinking about them?)<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re talking about how maybe now you\u2019re compromising national security by jumping from country to country, causing international incidents and straining U.S. relationships with Russia and China.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
From country to country? There have been precisely two countries. He was urged to leave Chinese Hong Kong and did, and has been immobile in Sheremetyevo International Airport. Why are you exaggerating?<\/p>\n
And what do you mean by \u201cnational security\u201d? Anyone using that intimidating term should define what it means, precisely. My security is not, in my mind, abetted by NSC surveillance of the population of Germany.<\/p>\n
\u201cCausing international incidents?\u201d How many? Of what nature? The man has taken two flights, dealt with two reactions in two countries, trying to be low-key. You make it sound like he\u2019s setting off bombs.<\/p>\n
\u201cRelations with Russia and China, really important relationships, and we\u2019re talking about how you praised countries like Russia and Venezuela for standing against human rights violations and refusing to compromise their principles. Seriously, Ed, where do you even come up with that? What are you thinking?\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
Umm\u2026I imagine he\u2019s thinking it\u2019s a good thing that Russia hasn\u2019t handed him over to what you call U.S. \u201cjustice\u201d both because he has violated no Russian law and because public opinion in Russia and globally is overwhelmingly on his side. And he\u2019s appreciating the fact that Venezuela has expressed willingness to grant him asylum with fewer procedural steps than required by Nicaragua, Bolivia and Ecuador. Seriously, Melissa. Who\u2019s writing your stuff?<\/p>\n
Your emotional rhetoric strikes me as an effort to really, really show how loyal you are to the system, to Obama, to Comcast. Is this a misinterpretation?<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, I understand you don\u2019t want to come back. I mean, to do so would be giving up your freedom. That\u2019s [inaudible] trial and likely for several months or years or after. I get it! It\u2019s prisons in the U.S. who commit actual human rights violations. We just talked about it. More than 80,000 prisoners are held in solitary confinement, some for years, some indefinitely, despite the fact that solitary is cruel and psychologically damaging. I know.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
Okay, fine. You\u2019ve acknowledged a significant piece of the problem. You\u2019ve shown you have some recognition of the horrors of the U.S. gulag. But didn\u2019t you just answer your own question?<\/p>\n
Just how are you expecting to be persuasive here? Don\u2019t you hear the contradictions swirling around in your head? Can you sleep with them there jangling, night after night?<\/p>\n
\u201cThose aren\u2019t the human rights violations though<\/i>, Ed<\/i>, that you were complaining about.\u201d\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n
Oh? I myself find a certain continuity between placing people in inhuman prison conditions and raping their identities through metadata surveillance. It\u2019s all bad. But what is your point, Melissa? That because Snowden is exposing (\u201ccomplaining about\u201d) government surveillance rather than prison conditions he should willingly submit himself to the U.S. prison system?<\/p>\n
You\u2019re being weird, you know. You\u2019re not making sense.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut you might have nothing to worry about anyway.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
Might<\/i> not? Like that\u2019s good enough? Bolivia\u2019s President Evo Morales \u201cmight not\u201d have had anything to worry about making the normal flight from Moscow to La Paz. But something really unusual happened.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause unlike most of the people in solitary confinement, including Bradley Manning on trial for giving data to Wikileaks, you\u2019ve cultivated for yourself a level of celebrity and that celebrity itself may just act as the protection, a kind of\u2013another kind of\u2013cloak if you ever find yourself in a U.S. prison. You have made quite a spectacle of yourself, and the Obama administration will be very careful about how it treats you, unlike how states treat all those other prisoners. What\u2019s goin\u2019 on man? Then we can talk about something else.<\/i><\/p>\n
Sincerely, Melissa.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
Please, Melissa! How in Snowden\u2019s very occasional, restrained statements has this man you\u2019ve decided to address in the familiar diminutive (\u201cEd\u201d) cultivated \u201ccelebrity\u201d for himself?<\/p>\n
Do you not understand that, in the first few days following his revelations, the spin-doctors incensed at his whistle-blowing, searching around in their fevered minds, opted to portray this very low-key guy as an ego-driven publicity seeker?<\/p>\n
I mean, you seem to be asking, by default: why else would a person in a position to know about what you yourself call \u201cinformation\u2026about surveillance [that] raises serious issues about the behaviors of our leaders and how they justify and hide those practices from the public\u201d reveal that information, other than to draw attention to himself?<\/p>\n
Is there no such thing as old-fashioned morality? And selfless attention to what\u2019s right? And in this case, doing the right thing at colossal personal cost?<\/p>\n
You\u2019re not making sense, Melissa. All you\u2019re doing is swearing a loyalty oath to people who do not deserve your loyalty. You\u2019re known for fighting against harmful stereotypes of black women that make it difficult for them to assert their political rights. (Bravo.) But you are using your own rights and privileged access to the camera to promote the character assassination of a young man whose sole crime has been to offend \u201cyour\u201d president\u2013the one who has now eight times invoked the World War One-era \u201cespionage\u201d act to punish whistle-blowers.<\/p>\n
You\u2019re the bully here. Snowden\u2019s not picking on you; you\u2019re picking on him, and apparently relishing it. Feels so good, doesn\u2019t it, standing up for the system like that, being so safe?<\/p>\n
What\u2019s goin\u2019 on, woman?<\/p>\n
Shame on you, making a spectacle of yourself like this.<\/p>\n
Wake up and re-think, Melissa.<\/p>\n
With best wishes,<\/p>\n
Gary<\/p>\n
GARY LEUPP<\/strong>\u00a0is Professor of History at Tufts University, and holds a secondary appointment in the Department of Religion. He is the author of\u00a0Servants, Shophands and Laborers in in the Cities of Tokugawa Japan<\/a>;\u00a0Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan<\/a>; and\u00a0Interracial Intimacy in Japan: Western Men and Japanese Women, 1543-1900<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em>He is a contributor to\u00a0<\/em><\/em><\/em>Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion<\/a>, (AK Press).\u00a0<\/em>He can be reached at:\u00a0gleupp@granite.tufts.edu<\/a><\/p>\n