There is endless chatter about the “decline of,” “loss of interest in,” or “end of” the humanities among and about college students and the never defined “general public” for decades, perhaps ever since the vague term “the humanities” came into general discourse. Notions vary and contradict each other. They range from those who confuse the arts and humanities with “the past,” “elites,” “bias of ‘Western Civilization’” regarding men, Caucasians, Christians, older people, and of course “the educated.”

Special censure contradictorily falls on academic humanists ourselves. Professors and our institutions are at once viewed as “conservative” enemies of “the people” or the “masses,” the upholders of traditions such as “the classics”  and “great books” at all costs. At the same time, with no evidence—only cultural bias and guilt by association—many associate the humanities alternatively with “liberals,” “the left,” “radicals,” “socialists,” Marxists,” and so forth.

It is feasible for China to continue playing an important role in mediating Middle
East conflicts. In fact, it already has. In the case of the Israeli occupation of Palestine,
however, mediation is hardly the issue.
 
Even before Beijing successfully managed to achieve reconciliation between Saudi
Arabia and Iran last April, Chinese diplomacy has shown exceptional maturity.
 
For many years, China has been perceived to be an outsider to global affairs,
supposedly contending itself to economic expansion or to regional economic
integration.
 
Former US President Donald Trump forced, or rather, accelerated China’s global
outreach when, in 2018, he launched an unprecedented trade war on the powerful
Asian country.
 
Trump’s plan backfired. Not only did Washington fail to dissuade Beijing from
bowing to American diktats, it also inspired what became known as China’s wolf
diplomacy – a self-assertive Chinese approach to foreign policy.
 
From an American - or Western - viewpoint, the new tactic was perceived to be
hostile and aggressive.
 

The horrifying disaster in Maui is Mother Nature’s way of telling us that with global boiling, there are no more safe places.

JOHN & MARGO STEINER say where to send our ALOHA IN ACTION support for those in this stricken paradise.

TATANKA BRICCA, MYLA RESON, DOROTHY REIK, JEFFREY BARKDULL and JUSTIN LEBLANC give us their mahalo in a time of tragedy.

@15:40 RACHEL COYLE then reveals the inside story of the HUGE people’s victory over Ohio’s fascist Issue One, meant to erase the public right to democratically amend the Buckeye constitution with a simple majority….enshrined in Ohio law since 1912.

@44:45 WENDI LEDERMAN describes Florida’s strongman/torturer Ron DeSantis’s purges of duly elected public officials, making Florida the place where democracy and freedom go to die.

The great eco-activist RUSSELL GREENE invites us to his September 17 mega-march in New York aiming to end fossil/nuke climate destruction.

PETER FIEKOWSKY explains his mega-engineering approach to decarbonizing the atmosphere.

Movie Against Child Abductions

Movie mogul Samuel Goldwyn reputedly once snarked: “If you want to send a message, use Western Union!” But one way socially conscious filmmakers can cleverly “sneak” messages into movies is by sandwiching their ideas into popular genres that audiences are familiar with. Film Noir and murder mysteries are good examples: Author Dashiell Hammett was a Communist Party member who put anti-capitalist notions about greed and obsession with money into works such as The Maltese Falcon. While the content of leftist filmmaker Costa-Gavras’ 1969 Oscar-winning Z depicts political assassination and the colonels’ coup in Greece, it is in form a whodunit: Who killed the Greek peace candidate?   

Columbus’ activist community lost one of our long-time social justice advocates when Gregory Gross, 66, passed unexpectedly in his sleep on August 13, 2023.

Gregory was originally from New Jersey and his family resides there. He studied here at Capital University in 1977 and shortly after, made Columbus his home. He rode his bike everywhere he went, to work and to all the activist events in the city. He often rode for charities such as the American Cancer Society (he was a survivor) and the American Diabetes Association. Another passion was jazz, and he often played sax with a local jazz band. He loved animals, owning several cats. If anyone remembers his apartment on Duncan, the ceiling was covered with homemade models of the Star Trek Enterprise.