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Because Susan Hirsch is a social scientist who has studied abroad, former state Rep. John Dunn wanted her opinion of how other countries react when the U.S. government decries human rights violations elsewhere in the world.
"Do they see us as hypocritical?" Dunn said. "We spout all these good things from our mouths, but we still have the death penalty."
Hirsch said the citizens of East Africa, a place she knows well, pay no attention for that very reason. "They see we are not upholding the values our nation was founded on," she said.
The exchange came during a question-and-answer session that followed Hirsch's presentation Wednesday evening on her new book, "In the Moment of Greatest Calamity: Terrorism, Grief and a Victim's Quest for Justice."
In it, she says her opposition to capital punishment was why she refused to testify during the trial's penalty phase against four men convicted in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya that killed her husband, Abdurahman Abdalla, and more than 200 other people.
Hirsch's appearance at Millikin University's Richards Treat University Center was sponsored by Macon County Citizens Opposing Capital Punishment and the university's chapter of Amnesty International.
She told the audience of 50 that she wrote the book primarily to show that Islamic communities are quite varied and that while capital terror trials are flawed, she hopes to encourage a renewed commitment to justice as a response to terrorism.
Hirsch said she favors "retributive justice" over revenge and supported the life sentences the embassy bombing defendants received.
Asked by Millikin freshman Lauren Wood if she is now at peace with what happened, Hirsch said closure never comes after such a horrific loss.
"I hope I've found some ways of using productively the horrible things that happened," she said.
Wood said afterward that Hirsch shows a lot of character and strength in dealing with the loss of her husband.
"I hope I could take it to heart and be so strong if something bad liked that happened to me," she said.
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