IN THE NEWS
Dear Bernard,
It is your turn, today, to ride into the unknown lands. You will be sorely missed by all of us who had the good fortune to get to know you a little and love you for as long as we have presence of mind and memory of the good cheer, optimism, and adventurous spirit that you so generously shared with us. And you will continue to be held in the highest esteem around our world by countless followers of your fine work as an artist.
You will always be our brave King Theoden, a person able to lead through example, to adjust his course and evolve, a beacon of love and our steadfast riding companion.
Steady as you go, friend.
“Where now are the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing?
Where is the helm and the hauberk, and the bright hair flowing?
Where is the harp on the harpstring, and the red fire glowing?
Where is the spring and the harvest and the tall corn growing?
They have passed like rain on the mountain, like a wind in the meadow;
The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow.
Who shall gather the smoke of the deadwood burning,
Or behold the flowing years from the Sea returning?”
“Where now are the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing?
Where is the helm and the hauberk, and the bright hair flowing?
Where is the harp on the harpstring, and the red fire glowing?
Where is the spring and the harvest and the tall corn growing?
They have passed like rain on the mountain, like a wind in the meadow;
The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow.
Who shall gather the smoke of the deadwood burning,
Or behold the flowing years from the Sea returning?”
(J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers)
Trump’s bombardment of dishonesty: Fact-checking 32 of his false claims to Time
May 4, 2024
Former President Donald Trump delivered a bombardment of dishonesty in his interviews with Time magazine.
Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, made at least 32 false claims in the two April interviews that Time released this week. His serial inaccuracy spanned a wide range of subjects, including the economy, abortion, the NATO military alliance, the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, his legal cases, his record as president and the 2020 election he has relentlessly lied about for more than three years.
... full articleThe thing the sixties did was to show us the possibilities and the responsibility that we all had. It wasn’t the answer. It just gave us a glimpse of the possibility.
We Columbia University students urge you to listen to our voices
May 4, 2024
On Tuesday night, we watched in horror as hundreds of riot police flooded our beloved campus and brutalized our classmates. The next day, students awoke with swollen faces, bruised wrists and lacerations – all results of inhumane police treatment. The past two weeks have been tumultuous, marked with mass arrests of student demonstrators, an encampment on our lawns, national media attention and vile acts of hatred. Countless have spoken on our behalf. But by speaking over us, media outlets and politicians have created a distorted narrative – one which unfairly characterizes our community.
... full articleBe sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.
I teach democracy at Princeton. Student protesters are getting an education like no other
May 4, 2024
I teach democracy at Princeton. Student protesters are getting an education like no other
Razia Iqbal
Students across the US are forging bonds in the face of brutal power structures. You might say they’ve already won
Sat 4 May 2024 07.00 EDT
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Teaching an undergraduate class on democracy at Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs this semester has felt urgent and clarifying. In the classroom, we’ve been looking at backsliding and the slow corrosion of democratic norms in so-called democratic countries. Meanwhile, what’s been happening outside the classroom in more than 120 universities around the US and the world tells us a more ominous story about democracy.
For two weeks, we focused on the United States; there were lively discussions on political polarization, January 6 and the threat posed by supporters of Donald Trump, as well as how robust or fragile US democracy currently is. Looking at each democracy involved criticism of the state. In the class on Israel, we examined, among other areas, controversial proposed judicial reforms, as well as the incarceration of Palestinian minors held in administrative detention, as examples where democratic values might be defined as absent.
... full articleHow friendly all men would be one with another, if no regard were paid to honour and money! I believe it would be a remedy for everything.
“A Student Rebellion Against the Hypocrisy of Their Elders” – USC Prof & Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author Viet Thanh Nguyen
May 1, 2024
The violent crackdown on students protesting against Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza reveals the stark hypocrisy of political and academic leaders at our colleges and universities, including my own. Instead of first turning to dialogue and debate – the very skills and values universities should promote – school administrators have turned to police, extreme discipline, and complying with a mainstream consensus that seems more interested in suppressing criticism of Israeli and American policy than protecting students.
From Columbia University to my own University of Southern California, peaceful student encampments in common university areas have been dismantled by city police, with hundreds of students arrested. Some have been suspended, evicted from dormitories, and threatened with expulsion and criminal conviction. At UT Austin, state troopers threw a Fox cameraman to the ground and arrested him. At Emory University, the chair of philosophy, Noelle McAfee, was arrested by a police officer wearing a balaclava, as if he were conducting an antiterrorism raid. Another Emory professor, Caroline Fohlin, who sought to protect students being arrested, was wrestled to the ground by two police officers, handcuffed, and charged with battery.
... full article