Correction of a meaningful typo

In the post I just sent out, inviting you to this virtual film screening Tuesday, a typo in a line about the conference I’m attending changed the meaning by 180 degrees. Sorry about that. I sent this out quickly from the airport as I wait for my delayed flight to get going.

The key lines should have read: “Much of the talk at the conference was about whether the community would wind up supporting Kamala Harris in the general election. The consensus seemed to be that the vast majority will not do so.”

It’s been corrected online. The full passage:

I’m writing you from Dearborn, where the film was screened last night at the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee conference. I was here for a panel on genocide and journalism with the Laila, the film’s executive producer, and Said Arikat, the legendary reporter you’ve probably seen pestering the State Department at briefings over the past two decades. 

Much of the talk at the conference was about whether the community would wind up supporting Kamala Harris in the general election. The consensus seemed to be that the vast majority will not do so. Green Party nominee Jill Stein, ahead of Harris in some polls of Muslim voters here, even spoke on opening night and was given quite a warm welcome. 

Two other major topics of conversation: Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat, on Thursday charged 7 student protesters with felonies related to campus encampments. As one elected official at the conference told me, Nessel ran on a promise to hold former Republican Gov. Rick Snyder responsible for the Flint water crisis and related cover-up, but never managed to do so, yet found a way to hit student protesters with felonies. 

The other involved an election for University of Michigan’s board of regents. Two of the board’s eight regents are elected per cycle, and student protesters organized behind Huwaida Arraf, a civil rights attorney. Some 600 or more students packed the Michigan Democratic Convention in August to back their candidate, but instead of embracing the willingness of the students to operate inside the Democratic tent, they were treated even worse than the uncommitted delegates at the Democratic National Convention. The announcement of the results was delayed until the very end of the convention, when an official quietly declared Arraf had lost and quickly adjourned the convention, stunning the sea of hundreds of yellow Huwaida-shirted students. The party has not released the complicated formula that weighted the votes. The final tally showed some 200 more people voted than had been signed up to vote ahead of time and Arraf is now suing over the opacity.

The collective sense at the convention is that the Democratic Party is not just not doing anything to win their votes, but is actively hostile toward the Arab and Muslim community in Michigan.