We live in an age of division. As the briefest glance at news media shows, contemporary universities are so often centers of differences, contradictions, and clashes between knowledge and ignorance off- and on-campus. One revealing site of combat is the false opposition of the faculty and the—to faculty and academic administration—second-class “professionals” in departments of student affairs and student life. This dichotomy, and its underlying both real and imaginary conflicts, critically parallels those between “learning and earning,” humanities’ core curriculum and “great books” vs. STEM and business education, curriculum vs. extracurriculum, and on-campus vs. off-campus life.

In this essay, as a retired humanities professor who taught for almost half a century at three public universities in large cities, and who lives in my city’s University District, I propose to seize on the strengths of both sides of what I see as a fallacious and harmful dichotomy. I seek to bring them closer together in the interests of undergraduate, graduate, and professional students, the suffering health of our universities, the advancement of young adults, and the needs of our nation.

Saturday, August 6, 2022, 1:00 – 2:00 PM
Celebrate the 57th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act on August 6th by standing up for democracy!  

Check-in and brunch begin at 10:30 am at the Sheraton in Capitol Square. The program will begin promptly at 11:00 am with a training and voter engagement resource give-away. We will then march to the Statehouse for the rally at 1 pm. 

This event is co-sponsored by Ohio Organizing Collaborative, NAACP Ohio Conference, APRI of Ohio, Ohio Unity Coalition, the Amos Project, the Ohio State Baptist Convention, our national partner Faith in Action, and our new co-sponsor The Ohio Legislative Black Caucus Foundation.  Join us to uplift Black and brown voices and fight for fair, free, and equitable elections. All Ohioans deserve to have their voices heard and their votes to matter! For questions, support with transportation, or other accessibility needs, please contact us at info@ohorganizing.org. 

77 years ago (August 9, 1945) an all-Christian bomber crew dropped an experimental plutonium bomb on Nagasaki City, Japan, instantly incinerating, asphyxiating and/or vaporizing tens of thousands of innocent civilians, mostly women and children. Very few Japanese soldiers were killed by the bombs.

Japan’s major religions are Shitoism and Buddhism, but a disproportionate number of the dead at Nagasaki were Christian. The bomb also wounded uncounted tens of thousands of other victims who suffered the blast trauma, the intense heat and/or the radiation sickness that killed and maimed so many of the survivors.

In 1945, the US regarded itself as the most Christian nation in the world and the bomber crew reflected that reality. The small United States Army Air Force (USAAF) unit that was charged with dropping the atomic bombs (the 509th Composite Group) even had two Christian military chaplains assigned to it. They all were products of the type of Christianity that failed to teach what Jesus taught concerning homicidal violence (ie, that it was forbidden to his followers).

Until recently, Israeli politics did not matter to Palestinians. Though the Palestinian people maintained their political agency under the most demoralizing conditions, their collective action rarely influenced outcomes in Israel, partly due to the massive discrepancy of power between the two sides. 

 Now that Israelis are embarking on their fifth election in less than four years, it is important to raise the question: “How do Palestine and the Palestinians factor in Israeli politics?” 

 Israeli politicians and media, even those who are decrying the failure of the ‘peace process’, agree that peace with the Palestinians is no longer a factor, and that Israeli politics almost entirely revolves around Israel’s own socio-economic, political and strategic priorities. 

 This, however, is not exactly true. 

Thursday, August 4, 6:45-9:30pm, this on-line event requires advance registration

“A gun-toting 83-year-old woman refuses to sell her house to the power plant next door. But despite her refusal, the plant has moved ahead with their 20-million-dollar deal to buy out most of Cheshire and bulldoze all the homes. What happened in this Ohio River town overrun by one of the largest coal-fired power plants in the world? A story of money, power, and the increasingly difficult choices we face surrounding coal and the environment, ‘Cheshire, Ohio’ makes us think twice about home.”

“Filmed over a decade, ‘Cheshire, Ohio’ follows a community devastated by coal, starting with American Electric Power’s buyout and bulldozing of this Ohio River community after exposing them to years of harmful emissions, and then returning several years later to the now almost emptied town as we follow the case of 77 plaintiffs who have filed a lawsuit against American Electric Power for not protecting them from carcinogenic chemicals at the plant’s coal ash landfill site.”