April 7, 2015
Emily O’Dell
Assistant Professor at the American University of Beirut
Tel: 961-1-350000, 340460, 374444, 374374
Fax: 961-1-744461
Email: fas@aub.edu.lb
Dear Professor:
I have read of your noble work in Lebanon and declare myself to be totally your fan. Well done. You are a model of courage in the pursuit of a good cause.
That said, it troubles me that in a few moments you will hate me and about everything I do and believe in with a cold unyielding fervor. I expect that. Just don’t pay any emotional price for it; you don’t deserve more to worry about. I see nothing that this can do for you today; on the other hand the day may come quite soon when you acknowledge that I am right and that this is terribly important. At that moment, if it comes, a little familiarity may be a nice thing.
Before I say where I am sure we differ, let me go on with what I believe we share: The world is a complex place, and while there are many doing dastardly things there are many who look for good things. Peace, tolerance and fairly distributed opportunities should be universal and, most importantly, this better world is achievable and worth working for.
Now the zinger: people who distrust outsiders have more babies than those who do not. This is biological. It has been true longer than there have been humans and will remain true long after humans are gone. So people with their hearts in the right place who marry outsiders must of necessity reduce the proportion of people with their hearts in the right place. The iron is most profound.
There is copious evidence posted at nobabies.net on March 2 of this year. I implore you to look at it. In 45 minutes of video you will understand the world, and in particular that bad things about the world, better than just about anybody ever. At that point I would suggest you go on about your wonderful work and ignore me for the time being. If and when you find what I will explain on the video to be useful, you will remember it.
At all events, I assure you this is something nobody else has ever told you. Doesn’t curiosity count for anything?
Sincerely,
M. Linton Herbert MD
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