Opinion
25 years before Israel was established on the ruins of historic Palestine, a Russian Jewish Zionist leader, Ze'ev Jabotinsky, argued that a Jewish state in Palestine could only survive if it exists “behind an iron wall” of defense.
Jabotinsky was speaking figuratively. However, future Zionist leaders, who embraced Jabotinsky’s teachings, eventually turned the principle of the iron wall into a tangible reality. Consequently, Israel and Palestine are now disfigured with endless barricades of walls, made of concrete and iron, which zigzag in and around a land that was meant to represent inclusion, spiritual harmony and co-existence.
A recent New York Times op-ed was perhaps the strangest, most awkward and tentative defense of the military-industrial complex — excuse me, the experiment in democracy called America — I’ve ever encountered, and begs to be addressed.
The writer, Andrew Exum, was an Army Ranger who had deployments in the early 2000s to both Iraq and Afghanistan, and a decade later served for several years as deputy assistant secretary of defense for Middle East policy.
I have frequently said to a friend who was born and reared in Jim Crow Nashville that Donald Trump is the spawn of George Wallace, only taller. Like Trump, Wallace was bombastic, rude and in perpetual motion. Pugnacious and argumentative, he also wore a permanent sneer as he railed against the elites whom he imagined were looking down on him, the son of a working class family. The term “the politics of rage” was invented for George Wallace. But unlike Trump who came to politics fairly late in life, politics grabbed Wallace by the lapels at a young age, and refused to let go.
I have frequently said to a friend who was born and reared in Jim Crow Nashville that Donald Trump is the spawn of George Wallace, only taller. Like Trump, Wallace was bombastic, rude and in perpetual motion. Pugnacious and argumentative, he also wore a permanent sneer as he railed against the elites whom he imagined were looking down on him, the son of a working class family. The term “the politics of rage” was invented for George Wallace. But unlike Trump who came to politics fairly late in life, politics grabbed Wallace by the lapels at a young age, and refused to let go.
Critics of the foreign and national security policies of the Joe Biden regime were quick to note that the American soldiers being pulled out of Afghanistan were no doubt a resource that will be committed to a new adventure somewhere else. There was considerable speculation that the new model army, fully vaccinated, glorious in all its gender and racial diversity and purged of extremists in the ranks, might be destined to put down potentially rebellious supremacists in unenlightened parts of the United States. But even given an increasingly totalitarian White House, that civil war type option must have seemed a bridge too far for an administration plagued by plummeting approval ratings, so the old hands in Washington apparently turned to what has always been a winner: pick a suitable foreign enemy and stick it to him.
As an active and now retired professor, I live in one of the city of Columbus’ older and more attractive neighborhoods. Called the University District, it abuts the Ohio State University (OSU) campus. Historically, that has been one of its assets but over the past few decades, it has become the major cause of its demise. The Columbus Police Department (CPD), the City of Columbus, the disparate group of large corporate landlords and management companies, and to a lesser extent the city’s media join in responsibility. This pattern of active and passive collusion is rarely admitted or even acknowledged (and if then misrepresented). It is a tragedy in terms of neighborhood decline; dangers to residents young and old; damage to persons, property, and life; and daily crimes and misdemeanors ranging from robbery, assault, and shootings; to property damage; illegal fireworks and gunshots; public drunkenness; noise, trash, and property desecration; and uncivil conduct. This must end now for the best interests of all parties including the students, most of whom are innocent victims.
Today, September 13, 2021, World BEYOND War announces as the recipient of the Lifetime Organizational War Abolisher of 2021 award: Peace Boat.
An online presentation and acceptance event, with remarks from representatives of Peace Boat will take place on October 6, 2021, at 5 a.m. Pacific Time, 8 a.m. Eastern Time, 2 p.m. Central European Time, and 9 p.m. Japan Standard Time. The event is open to the public and will include presentations of three awards, a musical performance, and three breakout rooms in which participants can meet and talk with the award recipients. Participation is free. Register here for Zoom link.
World BEYOND War is a global nonviolent movement, founded in 2014, to end war and establish a just and sustainable peace. (See: https://worldbeyondwar.org ) In 2021 World BEYOND War is announcing its first-ever annual War Abolisher awards.
Forced vaccination helped birth our nation.
As war erupted in the 1770s between American Revolutionaries and our British Imperial masters, a smallpox pandemic tore through the colonies.
The deadly disease killed by the thousands. But Supreme Commander George Washington made inoculation a decisive weapon of war.
The key insight came from a slave. In the early 1700s, an African “owned” by the Puritan preacher Cotton Mather introduced white America to the art and science of plague prevention. Stolen from his native land, Onesimus brought with him knowledge of the ancient method of inoculation.
As smallpox ravaged Calvinist Boston, Onesimus explained that injecting a small amount of infected pus under the skin of a healthy human would bring on a mild case of the disease … and then immunity. Despite intense resistance from the “civilized” white citizenry, Mather pushed the African insight.
Among those who trusted it … it worked, and countless lives were saved.
Several decades later, a 19-year-old George Washington traveled to Barbados with his brother, Lawrence. The trip was meant to cure Lawrence of tuberculosis, which later killed him.
The Free Press Cyber-Salon was Saturday, Sept. 11.
Free PressBoard member Mark Stansbery started the salon with a reflection on 9/11, since the salon was taking place on the evening of September 11, 2021 – the 20-year anniversary of the event.
Dr. Marilyn Howard spoke next to promote the publication of the book A History of Hate in Ohio: Then and Now. She wrote the introduction to the book, co-authored by Free Press Editor Bob Fitrakis and Michael Brooks. The book is available here and if you use the promo code HISTORY, there’s a discount. Marilyn recently participated in a public talk about the book.
The Troubadour Theater Company’s uproarious mounting of Lizastrata at the Getty Villa’s amphitheater is the latest of countless versions of Aristophanes’ Greek classic Lysistrata, first performed in Athens in 411 BC. Centered on a sex strike instigated by Athenian women to force their menfolk to stop warring with the Spartans, this ancient gender-themed risqué play has continued to capture the imagination of storytellers and audiences for 2400 years.