Reed Cosper

Right That! Thanks Mat.  My first question to believers who knock on my door is "Is the Bible literallly true?" The answer is invariably "yes.' Idolatry.  

Richard Zitrin

Thanks, Matt. When I visited Hebron in 2017, it was pretty obvious how badly the Palestinians were treated. And whatever you think of the NY Times, their recent lengthy article is worth a read. It's about how the extremist right wing in Israael has avoided punishment by law enforcement and gotten increasingly central political protection. This has been going on at least since Rabin's murder. It's frightening. A good friend who's a strong Israel supporter told me today he cried when he read it! Here's the link, and if you've posted here or are interested, it's a must read.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/16/magazine/israel-west-bank-settler-violence-impunity.html?searchResultPosition=2

One quibble, Matt: I don't think what CR said differs from what you're saying very much. His point was that NO ONE has clear title to the land over anyone else. I think that's right.

Rich

Marc Landy

Among those not indicted by the ICC: Xi, Erdogan, Khomeini, Maduro, Raul Castro

Liz Ryan (Cole)

A couple of weeks ago I posted here saying I didn't think this was the right place to have a discussion about Gaza/Oct 7 etc.  I was wrong. I have found the shared experiences and reflections to be thoughtful and informed and very helpful to me in struggling with the issues.  Thank you all.  

Donald Salisbury

Thank you all for these enlightening discussions - and your reflections, Matt, were especially helpful.

Elizabeth Keys (Jaffer)

Here is a different focus.  Did any of you watch the commencement ceremony streamed? I was struck by how students expressed their protests, how President Ambar responded, seeing how many international students there were from a range of countries, in both the Conservatory and the College, and especially the commencement address by Rhiannon Giddens '00.  I think you'd feel it was 20+ minutes well spent to hear Rhiannon Giddens from 1:26.17 - 1:47.39 in the streamed commencement at vimeo.com/950864392. And then you can watch whatever else catches your interest.  

Thomas Schultz

Another commencement speech that's worth a watch is by Ken Burns at Brandeis University (on Youtube).

Ralph Shapira

Thanks so much, Tom, for telling us about Ken Burns' wise, profound and moving Graduation Speech at Brandeis.  On YouTube.

Thomas Clark

Thanks, Tom and Ralph.  Ken Burns at his finest.  This was superb...well worth the 20 minute listen.

Ted Morgan

Burns' speech at Lehigh's graduation some years back was the best graduation speech I heard in my 40 years there.  Some truly embarrassing ones, for varying reasons (Kissinger, Malcolm (& later, Steve) Forbes, Trump (yes, Trump! a much later faculty vote rescinded his honorary degree), and Ted Turner outnumbered the reasonably good ones (e.g., Vonnegut).  Many were flat-out forgettable.

Richard Zitrin

I'm not sure why this forum has remained so silent during Trump II, and I'm not sure how to post on the cluster website. But I figured it's time to say something here. So I'm going to post what I put on Alan Wachtel's page this morning. Alan knew Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. because his dad was one of Dr. King's lawyers. What I said was:

After Dr. King was killed, the next morning Dr. Thompson put this message on the chalkboard from Dr. King's 1965 address at Oberlin. This was burnished into my memory from that day:

"The most striking fact about the story of Rip Van Winkle is not that he slept 20 years, but that he slept through a revolution.

None of us should be sleeping now.

Rich

Liz Ryan (Cole)

thank you Rich - I think having the cluster web site has caused some confusion and I agree it's hard to figure out/how where to make posts. But for some reason I got an email telling me you made this post and not only do I support your call for comments, but going back I found some very interesting comments from previous years.  Personally am hoping the No Kings Day coming up October 18 will bring out tens of millions of people in thousands of sites. 

Susan Scheinman (Leonard)

The silence is deafening. Some of what I read says that manypeople are speaking out, whatever the peronal cost. Personal vengence seem to be the general response, at the highest level. I am ready and able to to march on Oct. 18. As for the King statement, I have been trying to find the text of that speech for several years, to no avail. Do you have it Rich? The Alumni Office had to look it up to see if it really happened. No one seems to know about it.

T Poxon

Martin Luther King spoke at Oberlin College's 1965 Graduation. The MKL archives at Stanford University include a keyword summary of the ideas and people mentioned in the speech. They also have an audiotape recording. However, apparently, the address where he mentioned Rip Van Winkle and sleeping through a revolution has still not been transcribed.  Maybe the speech has been transcribed, but it is in another file.

Richard Zitrin

I searched on the web for "Dr. King" and "Rip Van Winkle" and found it immediately! it was on a gold or yellow background - the entire speech. I just went again this morning and couldn't find it! But it's out there somewhere.

As for standing on the sidelines, my main focus is I'm now an op-ed contributor to the SF Chronicle, where I've had 3 pieces printed this year. While it's an SF paper, it reaches all Northern CA, so I hope I'm not totally preaching to the choir. And I hope it is a call for that choir to get up and speak and act out.

If i could figure out how to post them here, I would. Meanwhile, let's all do what we can when we can.

Paul Safyan

Thanks Rich, Liz, Tom, and Susan.  All of us need to be more than "woke" from a long sleep.  We need to act on our beliefs.  The torch is lit, and hope ccmes from action, action that takes us to those whom we normally don't preach to in order to ally with them in their long-time needs.

Daniel Lesnick

This url should take you to MLK's commencement address:

 https://www2.oberlin.edu/external/EOG/BlackHistoryMonth/MLK/CommAddress.html

Liz Ryan (Cole)

excellent resarch Dan!!   and I know there is a way to have discussions using this platform/program because Chuck's high school (Walnut Hills, Cincinnati) has a robust dicussion network on the same kind.  But ours does not seem to support that same kind of interchange.  I'll ask Chuck to chime in when he returns from a wallk (I can report that is is a spectacularly beautiful fall morning here in Thetford).  Saf also had some info on this, as did a member of the class of '67 (whose name escapes me in this moment,... Tom?) who seems to know programs like this one. :). liz

Susan Scheinman (Leonard)

Thanks, all. But there was another speech. At Finney Chapel. I thought it was in the fall of our Sophomore year (1965) Does anyone else remember it. I remember waiting to sign up for it the previoous spring. And then going. And I know I wan't at Commencement. I don't remember what he said. But i will never forget his cadence.

Mary Lowry (Coleman)

At the bottom of the speech by King that referred to Rip Van Winkle sleeping through a revolution there is a link to King's other 3 speeches at Oberlin.

Herbert Ziegler

Rich, go to the bottom of tis Messages page and click "post Message." I would like to see your editorial from the Chronicle. I was oin SF two weeks ago with Penny Zoldbrod and she directed me to your 9/24 piece in the Chronicle on Trump's prosecution campaign against his "enemies." Very good, and I'm glad they gave you enough column inches.

Richard Zitrin

Thanks, Dan. That's the page I saw, with its familiar red and gold. And yes, the bottom of the page does reference the speech in October '64 when we were freshmen. How lucky were we to get to Oberlin in September and get to hear and see Dr. King in Oct!

Herbert, you have my recent article. My third this year, glad to say. Having that outlet has made me feel a lttle less awful b/c I get to say things out loud. I don't see any way to attach it here for others, but here are the links:

On effectively ordering the Comey indictment (Sept): https://eedition.sfchronicle.com/html5/reader/production/default.aspx?pubname=&edid=3dc0cfd6-fc07-4798-98cd-22085c429cb4&pnum=12

On the troops to LA (June): https://eedition.sfchronicle.com/html5/reader/production/default.aspx?pubname=&edid=f822e32c-b664-4a63-b93f-9220d123b32e&pnum=12

On bullying law firms and prosecutors (March): https://eedition.sfchronicle.com/html5/reader/production/default.aspx?pubname=&edid=033fd7da-98b5-4605-85c2-44e436478c07&pnum=12

Let's all stay awake and active, as Saf said.

Emily Elliott (Ettling)

I remember it, Susan. I didn't have the sense to sign up the spring before. But of course I went. Many many of us did. We were spilled out down the stairs and grass and sidewalk from Finney Chapel and his remarkable voice was broadcast out to us on speakers. My memory is that there was a protest in Cleveland that many of us joined around that time. Civil Rights before the focus understandably shifted to the war. That would have been Fall of 1965 when the Civil Rights Act was signed by LBJ, I think.

Emily Elliott (Ettling)

*Voting Rights Act. Civil Rights Act the year before.

Edward McKelvey

In my case, make no mistake--I find virtually everything the Trump administration has done to be outrageous, inhumane, and in most cases (though I'm no lawyer) illegal and unconstitutional.  I'm just not sure what benefit is to be gained by expressing those views, event by event, to a group made up largely of people of the same mind.