The Lost Speech

Abstract

Last night, at dinner, when you informed me that Julia Kristeva was not going to participate in our Presidential Forum because of health prob lems in her family, I must confess that, along with sadness at her ab sence, I found myself wondering whether this unfortunate circumstance might not allow me to save myself some embarrassment by reading out her speech instead of mine. But you had already asked someone else to do so, and I find myself, therefore, unable to cover for the fact that I cannot deliver the words I had prepared for today's plenary session. Something unexpected happened yesterday, unexpected and yet perhaps not surpris ing. Please believe me that this is not your typical "the dog ate my home work" excuse. This really happened. Yesterday, on my arrival from Latin America at Miami International Airport, at exactly 10:31 in the morning, two agents from the Department of Homeland Security impounded my speech on the role of the intellectual in the twenty-first century. You might think that such things cannot happen in the United States. And indeed, you have the right to remain skeptical. In fact, that was one of the points in my speech: that we have not only the right but also the obligation to remain skeptical. And rebellious. And vigilant. The only right we do not have is the right to remain silent. But I am getting ahead of myself. The point is that the batteries in my computer ran out al