Aaron and Della and the Quest for bin Laden

 Della and Aaron had formed a tight partnership in their time at BU.  Her eye through the viewfinder and his nose for news, made them a force to be reckoned with.  Having graduated top of their respective classes from Boston University and moving on to freelancing with Today Magazine, based in New York City, they turned their attention to the world of foreign politics.

Al Qaeda was fast becoming a threat to the US. Founded by Osama bin laden, Abdullah Azzam and several other militants, with origins going back to the Soviet war in Afghanistan, it operated as a network, not defined by a particular state, but a multinational army, an Islamist extremist jihadist group.  Al Qaeda had mounted attacks on civilian and military targets in various countries.  Its attacks on the US escalated from the 1998 US embassy bombings to the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center  in 2001. It was just after the 911 attack that the Bush administration  announced  a $25 million reward for information leading to the capture or killing of Osama bin Laden.

By this time, Aaron and Della had become acquainted with Ryan Jamieson, a graduate of the Rochester Institute of Photojournalism, who had been recruited to the CIA right out of college.  Although Della was unaware of Ryan’s connection to the force, Aaron, with his astute mind and powers of observation had figured out his secret identity and was taken into Ryan’s confidence.  Theirs was a mutually convenient relationship with Aaron’s need for insider information and Ryan’s need to be able to leak select information through the media.

When news of the reward for bin Laden was released, Aaron was determined that he and Della would join the hunt and they had packed their bags and headed to Afghanistan.    

 

                                                

Aaron, Della and the Power of Persuasion

 

The winter was dragging on and the relentless snow was generating a laundry mountain of mammoth proportions in Aaron’s dormroom.  The semester was waning and with it, Aaron’s resources.  He looked at the roll of quarters on his night table and his mouth watered at the thought of the delicious Macdonalds  meal he could bankroll with that coin.  He had checked his Terrier card balance on the student website and found that his balance read $1.99.

Suddenly he had a brainwave, Della Rawlins lived in the Tower.  They had twenty washers and driers. Could she  be  doing laundry today?  Using his powers of persuasion, he might be able to con her into allowing him to piggyback onto her laundry load.  Stuffing a duffel with  dirty clothes, he dashed down the stairs and across the quadrangle toward the Tower. Luckily, he spotted his “mark” throwing clothing into a washing machine.  Knowing that most successful negotiations depended upon a confident approach, he sauntered  over to the machine next to Della and turned on a charming smile, “Hi Della, fancy meeting you on laundry day,”

“Oh, hi,” Della said, reaching for her detergent, “How’re you ?”

“Great!  Whoa, you’re not gonna use that detergent are you?”  he asked, indicating her box of no name suds.

“Yeah, Why?”

Reaching for someone’s box of cold water detergent, he said,”Well this  stuff does a great job, is easier on the environment, and costs less per load.  Why don’t we try it out?”

Adding  his own clothes to the half load Della already had in the machine, Aaron said, I’ll bet you’ll be amazed!”

“Slick,” she thought, hiding a grin, but she had to admit, it was kind of sexy watching her lacy panties and his boxers tangling together in the wash.

 

The Ebola Virus, West Africa

 

Della and Aaron were ecstatic!  They had both been chosen for Boston University’s Crisis Response Reporting program and a rumor had been circulating that of the eight students working in the Global Student Newsroom, two were being sent to Sierra Leone to report on the Ebola outbreak.  It was so high profile, that the assignment could be a career maker.

The university’s goal in pairing students from the School of Communications with students from the School of Public Health was to strengthen relationships and promote greater collaboration between public health professionals and journalists.  The two groups  could not see eye to eye because the public health people could never depend on the journalists to get the facts right.  They were more interested in humanizing the story, and trying to sensationalize the findings, rather than deal with dull statistics and study results.  It had gotten to the point that public health officials would not even talk to journalists anymore.

“Della, if we get chosen, what we need to do is concentrate on one family’s story, really get to the heart of it.  Find out  how the first family member became exposed, then follow right through  to the orphaned children.  We need to really pull on the heartstrings, show how devastating this would be if it ever got into the US.”

“Aaron, this is specifically not what the University wants us to do, dramatize and sensationalize.  Our goal is to simplify the story without distorting and confusing the real issues.  We want to earn the trust of  public health officials, so that we are sure to report actual statistical study results.  We are not writing a script for a “Pandemic” movie.  This is real life.  We don’t need to create panic and make pariahs out of victims.”

      Stay tuned for more prequels from the Lion’s Den coming soon! 

 

Aerosmith at BU

The University had been abuzz for weeks. The band Aerosmith was home from a cross country tour and had agreed, for old times sake, to do a concert for Boston University.

Two young hotshots had met one day in the Massachusetts resort town of Sunapee, when Steven Tallarico (later Tyler)  dropped into The Anchorage ice cream and snack shop for a plate of fries.  Wanting to meet the guy who served up the best french fries he had ever eaten, Tyler was introduced to a dude with  horn-rim glasses and black hair half way down his back. The then-seventeen year old Joe Perry, was impressed by Tyler’s cocky “rock star” swagger. It wasn’t long before they embarked on a friendship that would culiminate into arguably the best hard rock band in America. With the addition of Perry’s friend, bassist Tom Hamilton, and two former band mates of Tyler’s, drummer Joey Kramer and guitarist Ramond Tabano, Aerosmith was born.

Now after thirty years of touring, whoring and a wild ride of music, drugs and rock and roll, they were finished paying their dues and now played to sold out crowds of twenty thousand or more. Steven had done a stint on the hit reality TV show American Idol as a judge, but was back full time now with the band and life was good.

Remembering their roots, when they had played high school dances and frat parties for $125 a night, they were coming back to Boston and to BU to say thanks to the alumni who had been their first fans back in the day and to the new generation who was only now discovering Aerosmith for the first time.

Della and Aaron were planning to be there front row center.  It was an event not to be missed!

                                                     

 

Combatants: Palestine vs Israel

The crowd  had grown to where the Castle’s caretaker started to worry about fire regulations.  The combatants had squared off  in the reception area.

“You would feel in danger of  annihilation, too, if you heard  the President of Irag, Abdur Rahman Araf announce that the “existence of Israel is an error which must be rectified” and they would “wipe Israel off the map.”  Della said.

“What about Hamas? They were democratically elected to govern Gaza, but  Israel saw them as  terrorists, preventing any meaningful negotiation for peace indefinitely.”

“The Jews had been present here for three hundred years and had deep religious ties to  Israel.  They believed that the land had been given to them by God.”

“But the Islamic Resistance Movement insists that  Palestine’s legal status under Islamic law is  Waqf, endowed for all generations of Muslims until the Day of Resurrection, and not to be neglected or relinquished.  No one else could claim it.  What makes their assertion any less valid than the Israelis?”

“Some Islamic scholars recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the Holy land and Jerusalem. These are holy places and their rights to them should be protected,”Della argued.

“But many Muslims say that the Holy cities of Mecca and Medina are theirs, conquered in the name of Islam and are considered Waqf under Sharia Law, the law of Islam,”

“People, while this has been a fascinating debate, I am sorry that the conference center is due to close for the evening,”  the dean announced,” I would invite both participants to join in a panel discussion at a later date.  Thank you all for coming, and I congratulate Miss Rawlins and Mr. Giles on a fair and respectful debate.  Thank you and good Night.”

Norma              Stay tuned for more prequels to 

                                                      The Lion’s den, coming soon

 

Aaron and Della Start a Debate

Aaron regarded the young chit in front of him as one would regard an annoying dog.  He had spent his undergrad  at BostonU building a reputation as an activist and  scholar on  the war in the middle east.  He was regarded by the faculty as a very well informed student who  was well researched and sourced and  on his way to a career as a foreign correspondent with a major newspaper or national television news service.  He wasn’t about to let some underclassman undermine his credibility.

“Well, Miss…….”

“Rawlins, ” Della supplied.

“What would be your views on the peaceful resolution of the war between the Israelis and the Palestinians in the Middle east?”  Aaron asked.

“I think many of the attempts that have been made over the years  could have been successful. President Sadat of Egypt and King Hussein of Jordan made a good stab at trying to attain peace.  Israel was willing to make concessions, as long as their rights and interests were addressed and the climate was right for a peaceful resolution.   Yet when Bill Clinton and the Israelis offered a nominally independant state to Palestinian leader Yassar Arafat, he declined.”

“The Palestine Liberation Organization, was prepared to recognize the State of Israel as long as they removed some of the settlements and retreated from Palestinian territory back to the 1967 borders,”   Aaron countered.

“Yes, but the Israelis believed that the conflict was a result of the Arab attempt to destroy Israel and that only their  military power stood between them and annihilation.”

By now a crowd had gathered around the two, and everyone was fascinated in hearing both sides of the conflict.

Norma             Stay tuned for more from Della and Aaron’s

                                              great debate in the next Lion’s Den prequel coming soon!

 

 

 

 

Debaters at Boston University