Purpose

"In these times, any one of you who feels inclined to risk a little and learn a lot should travel to an Islamic country to make friends and to learn, not to teach. . . . You should get to know them well enough to understand why what they believe is plausible to them, and you should explain their views to other Americans as sympathetically and as accurately as you can."

--William T. Vollmann, from "Some Thoughts on the Value of Writing During Wartime," a lecture given in November 2002
From vagablogging.net