It is right to denounce the protestors’ oversimplifications that blame “the Israeli regime” for the violence of October 7. That narrative omits centuries of persecution from the charge of deicide, to the blood libel, to Nazi genocide, and more. Furthermore, the population of Israel is not “the Israeli regime.” Indeed, many Jews and Palestinians, for generations, have fostered mutual understanding through groups such as Peace Now, Two States for Two Peoples, the Jerusalem Youth Chorus, or the inter-religious swim team that trains in Jerusalem at the YMCA.
By the same token, it is wrong to smear all higher education, “the academy,” for its toleration or its puzzlement over how to handle the protestors, whether students, faculty, or even some outsiders. In this country, and especially in our institutions of higher learning, we welcome questions, integrate new facts, and explore anomalies. We would decapitate ourselves if we accepted the slur that $80,000 tuition-based institutions are essentially neo-Nazi think tanks. It is no accident that John Stuart Mill launched his protest that we must speak out against evil from a university. Where else is such freedom permitted? We cannot allow the excesses of an outspoken minority become a self-inflicted assault on our own universities. It is there we teach our youth to think outside the box, to discover facts, to create new syntheses. There will be tension. Do not blow up the laboratory.
Say it Loud!!!! I cannot understand why so few are saying anything online, in person, etc. It's as though its not happening. Have we learned nothing???
It is right to denounce the protestors’ oversimplifications that blame “the Israeli regime” for the violence of October 7. That narrative omits centuries of persecution from the charge of deicide, to the blood libel, to Nazi genocide, and more. Furthermore, the population of Israel is not “the Israeli regime.” Indeed, many Jews and Palestinians, for generations, have fostered mutual understanding through groups such as Peace Now, Two States for Two Peoples, the Jerusalem Youth Chorus, or the inter-religious swim team that trains in Jerusalem at the YMCA.
By the same token, it is wrong to smear all higher education, “the academy,” for its toleration or its puzzlement over how to handle the protestors, whether students, faculty, or even some outsiders. In this country, and especially in our institutions of higher learning, we welcome questions, integrate new facts, and explore anomalies. We would decapitate ourselves if we accepted the slur that $80,000 tuition-based institutions are essentially neo-Nazi think tanks. It is no accident that John Stuart Mill launched his protest that we must speak out against evil from a university. Where else is such freedom permitted? We cannot allow the excesses of an outspoken minority become a self-inflicted assault on our own universities. It is there we teach our youth to think outside the box, to discover facts, to create new syntheses. There will be tension. Do not blow up the laboratory.
Say it Loud!!!! I cannot understand why so few are saying anything online, in person, etc. It's as though its not happening. Have we learned nothing???