Do we really need another essay on freedom? When’s the last time you read one? It’s good to be reminded occasionally of meaningful basics. We get accustomed to being unfree, so it’s a good idea to be reminded of what freedom is. It’s also useful to be reminded that freedom, in the form of unfree people, is at the root of the American birth defect. We fought a Civil War over that idea. It’s also useful to note that there are fake or faux freedoms, like the desire, effort, and ability to overthrow free and democratic elections, as Trump supporters and many Republicans attempted after the November 2020 elections. Jefferson Cowie in his book Freedom’s Dominion: A Sage of White Resistance to Federal Power, noted that the Right has turned “freedom” into a dog whistle.
Category Archives: Authors A-H
Authors listed by last name A-H
Campus Jews on Trial – by R. A. Crevoshay
Opinion: American Jewish Education
Fails Israel
What I offer is an unapologetic defense of the Jewish People. Oh yes, we are indeed a People. Not an ethnicity, though we have many ethnicities within our general culture. Not a religion, though we do have numerous and competing variations of theology among our ranks. It ain’t about religion.
Jews are the indigenous nation of the Land of Israel.
We’ve been separated from our land for a couple thousand years.
Jews are indigenous under the definition provided by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Where we differ from virtually every other dispossessed indigenous culture is that we have honored the memory of our roots. Through a couple of millennia of suffering the brutality visited upon us by most of our foreign hosts, we not only remembered our homeland, but we’ve had the unwelcome chutzpah to recover and resettle it.
Diversity and Speech No. 46: The Art of Turning 90 – by Carlos Cortés
I never really thought much about turning 90. That is, until April 6, 2023, the day I turned 89. That’s when my daughter, Alana, asked me the life-altering question: “Dad, what are you going to do special for your 90th birthday?”
“As little as possible,” I responded in my best bah, humbug voice. “Maybe Laurel and I will go to Del Taco.” Anything to avoid the deluge of obligatory phone calls and discordant group renditions of “Happy Birthday.”
Continue reading Diversity and Speech No. 46: The Art of Turning 90 – by Carlos Cortés
Comparisons of Anti-Vietnam War Protests and Pro-Palestinian Protests – by Marc Brenman
Recently I was asked to compare and contrast the Anti-Vietnam War Protests of the mid to late 1960’s and early 1970’s with the current Pro-Palestinian, Pro-Gaza, and Anti-Israel protests, largely on college campuses. I was very active in activities against the War in Vietnam while in college and graduate school. I have some regrets at some of the stupid things I said and did. Therefore I try to understand the current demonstrators. I had a ox being gored—fear of being drafted. Thus, I had a personal stake in the actions. Today’s students have no such stake. It is especially notable that most of the groups opposing Israel’s stance in the Gaza War have no stake whatsoever in that part of the world.
Again, cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face – by Terry Howard
I chuckled at the news a few years ago about farmers who whined and bellyached about those “illegals” flooding the borders – southern borders, of course. Well, those tax-paying “illegals” apparently got the message because over a relatively short period of time their numbers of crossings plummeted.
Well, to the surprise of those forward-looking farmers, that summer much of their crops rotted in the sun because “illegals” were no longer available to pick them, and “real Americans” took a pass on those jobs.
Continue reading Again, cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face – by Terry Howard
Catalyzing Inclusive Urban Economies- by Ainesh Dey
The Dynamics of Urban Economies in India
In the rapidly changing landscape of urban economies in India, nuanced civic engagement, enhanced transparency, accountability, and representation have come to the forefront as significant issues. This piece seeks to investigate the shift in the public administration’s discourse from a traditional solution to a more collaborative one with the aim of creating inclusive and sustainable policy frameworks.
The prospect of nuanced civic engagement in democratic processes plays an important role in spearheading transparency, accountability and representation. It also strengthens the overall socio-political and economic character of contemporary administrative discourse. At a time when we are experiencing a paradigm shift from traditional redressal of grievances to instances of collaborative solution building, considerable emphasis has been laid on the effective streamlining of policy frameworks, thereby making them more inclusive and sustainable.
Continue reading Catalyzing Inclusive Urban Economies- by Ainesh Dey
Diversity and Speech Part 44: Generations of Gender Talk – by Carlos Cortés
Keeping up with the ongoing changes in diversity language has become a matter of lifelong learning. For a near-nonagenarian (I turn 90 on April 6), this means continuous learning as well as relentless unlearning. That is, trying to unlearn old uses of language that decades of repetition have deeply wired into my brain.
Take gender. Growing up in 1940’s Kansas City, Missouri, I learned that men were men and women were women. I inhabited a world of man talk and woman talk, men’s jobs and women’s jobs, men’s clothes and women’s clothes. It wasn’t much different in college during the 1950’s. We were men and women, not cisgender or transgender men and women.
Continue reading Diversity and Speech Part 44: Generations of Gender Talk – by Carlos Cortés
DIPLOMACY IN THE INDO PACIFIC – by Ainesh Dey
THE RISE OF MINILATERALISM
INTRODUCTION
The present geopolitical landscape has witnessed a seemingly drastic transition, with the widespread emergence of multifarious groupings, popularly referred to as “Minilaterals”, premised upon the imperative understanding of peacebuilding and conflict resolution, and shared threat perceptions, with regards to numerous strategically viable areas. The growing realization of the virtual deficiencies of singular organizations in combating regional challenges through calibrated options and the pronounced infringements of broader strategic interests, have accentuated the need for the constitution of such multilateral organizations.
The Indo Pacific replete with a wider array of opportunities to broaden international partnerships, has emerged as the bastion of profound diplomatic engagements thereby taking shape as one of the most coveted realms of contemporary international relations . Kicking off proceedings with the actively revamped Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD), a brainchild of the United States, integrating presently developing proponents of India, Japan and Australia into the fold of strengthened commitment against Chinese belligerence, this rapidly evolving phenomenon of “Minilateralism”, has remained manifest in the recently constituted AUKUS (Australia, UK and the US ) and the renewed fervour of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), skewed towards pursuing narrow and monolithic interests of international consolidation. Continue reading DIPLOMACY IN THE INDO PACIFIC – by Ainesh Dey
Why not a “Sully” Sullenberger for President? – by Terry Howard
“Some voters are burned out on outrage!”
That’s the recent headline in a national publication. That outrage? The eyebrow raising rancor, silliness and general awfulness surrounding the upcoming presidential election.
And the truth is that if we strike out the first four letters in the word “outrage” what’s left are three letters many voters are particularly burned out on…. age…as in President Joe Biden’s age! Count yours truly among them. Shucks, if I had a dollar for every time Biden’s age is cited in the news, I could purchase a luxurious mansion in Miami, Malibu (or, eh, Mar-a-Lago).
Continue reading Why not a “Sully” Sullenberger for President? – by Terry Howard
“Mrs. Good Trouble”: Amelia Boynton Robinson – by Terry Howard
Some people are just made to cause, as the late Congressman John Lewis called it, “good trouble.” They’re contrarian by nature. It’s in their DNA. It ignites their fury. It explains their courage to put life and limb at risk for what they believe in.
Which brings us to African American History Month 2024 and to “Mrs. Good Trouble” herself, the late civil rights pioneer Amelia Boynton Robinson, inarguably the matriarch of the voting rights movement. Now if you subscribe to that familiar saying, “behind every great man is a woman,” then I’ll say, “behind every great movement is a woman.” Many of them in fact.
Continue reading “Mrs. Good Trouble”: Amelia Boynton Robinson – by Terry Howard