Constructive Engagement

As leaders of America's colleges, universities, and scholarly societies, we speak with one voice against the unprecedented government overreach and political interference now endangering American higher education.  We are open to constructive reform and do not oppose legitimate government oversight.  However, we must oppose undue government intrusion in the lives of those who learn, live, and work on our campuses.  We will always seek effective and fair financial practices, but we must reject the coercive use of public research funding. ...

The price of abridging the defining freedoms of American higher education will be paid by our students and our society.  On behalf of our current and future students, and all who work at and benefit from our institutions, we call for constructive engagement that improves our institutions and serves our republic.

-- American Association of Colleges and Universities, "A Call for Constructive Engagement" (22 April 2025), signed by representatives of more than 200 member institutions

RIP Pope Francis

May the Lord grant the deserved reward to those who have wished me well and will continue to pray for me.  The suffering that marked the final part of my life, I offer to the Lord, for peace in the world and brotherhood among peoples.

-- Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025), head of the Roman Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2013, Funereal Testament (29 June 2022); published by Daily Bulletin of the Holy See Press Office (21 April 2025)

Happy Easter

I'm currently hanging out in a cabin close to Lake Carlyle in southern Illinois. We don't have the whole clan together this year, but I've got a couple of kids and a few grandkids here for the occasion.

I hope you all enjoy the holiday weekend.

A Million Amateurs

Never underestimate the power of a million amateurs with keys to the factory.

-- Chris Anderson (1961 -), editor-in-chief of Wired, The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More (2006) Ch. 5, p. 58

The Guise Of Fighting Antisemitism

The rule of law, freedom of inquiry, access to vibrant places of higher education, and strong democratic norms and institutions have allowed American Jewry to thrive for hundreds of years.

Dangerous antisemitic tropes and conspiracy theories that over the past decade have already fueled a cycle of hate crimes and violence -- including the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in U.S. history in Pittsburgh -- have been mainstreamed by too many political leaders, civil society influencers, social media platforms, and others.

In recent weeks, escalating federal actions have used the guise of fighting antisemitism to justify stripping students of due process rights when they face arrest and/or deportation, as well as to threaten billions in academic research and education funding.  Students have been arrested at home and on the street with no transparency as to why they are being held or deported, and in certain cases with the implication that they are being punished for their constitutionally-protected speech.  Universities have an obligation to protect Jewish students, and the federal government has an important role to play in that effort; however, sweeping draconian funding cuts will weaken the free academic inquiry that strengthens democracy and society, rather than productively counter antisemitism on campus.

These actions do not make Jews -- or any community -- safer.  Rather, they only make us less safe.

-- Joint statement from a coalition of 10 US Jewish organizations, released by the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, 15 April 2025

No Young Man

No young man believes he shall ever die.

-- William Hazlitt (1778 - 1830), English writer remembered for his humanistic essays and literary criticism, Table Talk: Essays On Men And Manners (1821-1822) "On the Feeling of Immortality in Youth"

It Can Happen To Anyone

The SMART Transportation Division (SMART-TD) stands in unwavering solidarity with Brother Kilmar Abrego Garcia.  He is a first-year apprentice of SMART Local 100, who was mistakenly deported by the U.S. Government, then imprisoned in El Salvador without due process or opportunity for appeal.  If this can happen to Garcia, it can happen to anyone. 

Kilmar fled El Salvador after enduring threats and extortion from the violent Barrio 18 gang.  These threats were so severe that a U.S. immigration judge granted him legal protection in 2019.  Despite this protection, Brother Abrego Garcia was unlawfully detained and forcibly deported by ICE agents on March 12, 2025, while driving home from work with his son. ...

The United States Government has no legal authority to snatch a person who is lawfully present in the United States off the street and remove him from the country without due process.  The Government's contention otherwise, and its argument that the federal courts are powerless to intervene, are unconscionable. 

This egregious violation of our brother's rights has been acknowledged by federal courts and even the U.S. government, which admits his removal was an "administrative error."  However, Kilmar remains in custody overseas, and the federal government has failed to take action to bring him home, even contesting a court order to do so. ...

-- Statement by the Sheet Metal / Air Rail Transportation Union, "SMART-TD Stands With Brother Kilmar Abrego Garcia" (10 April 2025)

No Other President

We're going to have one shot at this and no other president is going to do this, what I'm doing. ...  So it's going to be very interesting.  It's the only chance our country will have to reset the table, because no other president would be willing to do what I'm doing or to even go through it. 

-- President Donald Trump, speaking about tariffs and the US economy in a Q & A alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, 7 April 2025

Follow The Law

The United States Government arrested Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia in Maryland and flew him to a "terrorism confinement center" in El Salvador, where he has been detained for 26 days and counting.  To this day, the Government has cited no basis in law for Abrego Garcia's warrantless arrest, his removal to El Salvador, or his confinement in a Salvadoran prison.  Nor could it.  The Government remains bound by an Immigration Judge's 2019 order expressly prohibiting Abrego Garcia's removal to El Salvador because he faced a "clear probability of future persecution" there and "demonstrated that [El Salvador's] authorities were and would be unable or unwilling to protect him."  The Government has not challenged the validity of that order.

Instead of hastening to correct its egregious error, the Government dismissed it as an "oversight."  The Government now requests an order from this Court permitting it to leave Abrego Garcia, a husband and father without a criminal record, in a Salvadoran prison for no reason recognized by the law.  The only argument the Government offers in support of its request, that United States courts cannot grant relief once a deportee crosses the border, is plainly wrong.  The Government's argument, moreover, implies that it could deport and incarcerate any person, including U. S. citizens, without legal consequence, so long as it does so before a court can intervene.  That view refutes itself.

In the proceedings on remand, the District Court should continue to ensure that the Government lives up to its obligations to follow the law.

-- Statement of Justice Sotomayor, with whom Justice Kagan and Justice Jackson join, respecting the Court's decision to uphold a lower court's ruling that the U.S. Government must "facilitate and effectuate the return of [Abrego Garcia] to the United States" in Kristi Noem, Secretary, Dept. Of Homeland Security, et al. v. Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, et al. (10 April 2025)

Foundation Of Virtues

Humility is the good and solid foundation of virtues; should it waver, the whole house of virtues collapses.

-- Guigo de Ponte, also known as Guigues du Pont, Carthusian monk of the Grande Chartreuse, De vita contemplativa (13th Century), as translated by Dennis D. Martin, in Carthusian Spirituality: The Writings of Hugh of Balma and Guigo de Ponte, (New York: Paulist Press, 1997), p. 197

Waiting For Baudot

This post is in honor of Mediacom, the internet provider that is currently not providing me internet.

I abruptly lost service for both internet and cable (yes, I still have cable) around noon fifteen. It's now eleven fifteen ish, and the estimated time of repair has changed to stay just beyond reach.

I'm posting from my phone, so I'll leave it at that. 

Least Sensitive

When I hear it contended that the least sensitive are, on the whole, the most happy, I recall the Indian proverb: "It's better to sit than to stand, it is better lie down than to sit, but death is best of all."

-- Nicolas Chamfort (1741 - 1794), born Nicolas-Sébastien Roch, French writer, Maxims and Considerations, #155

Nothing Else

I am a showman by profession -- and all the gilding shall make nothing else of me.

-- Phineas Taylor Barnum (1810 - 1891), American showman who is remembered for founding the circus that eventually became Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, as quoted in P. T. Barnum: America's Greatest Showman (1995) by Philip B. Kunhardt Jr. and Philip B. Kunhardt III

Wipe Out

Roughly $2.5 trillion was erased from the S&P 500 Index on Thursday amid worries that President Donald Trump's sweeping new round of tariffs could plunge the economy into a recession.

The damage was heaviest in companies whose supply chains are most dependent on overseas manufacturing.  Apple Inc., which makes the majority of its US-sold devices in China, fell 9.3%.  Lululemon Athletica Inc. and Nike Inc., among companies with manufacturing ties to Vietnam, were both down more than 9%.  Target Corp. and Dollar Tree Inc., retailers whose stores are filled with products sourced outside of the US, dropped more than 10%.

-- Jeran Wittenstein, Carmen Reinicke, and Matthew Griffin writing for Bloomberg, "Trump Tariffs Wipe Out $2.5 Trillion From US Stock Market" (3 April 2025)

As Much As You Can

Find things beautiful as much as you can, most people find too little beautiful.

-- Vincent Willem van Gogh (1853 - 1890), Dutch Post-Impressionist painter, in a letter to his brother Theo van Gogh (January 1874)

Not Normal

I rise tonight with the intention of disrupting the normal business of the United States Senate for as long as I am physically able. I rise tonight because our nation is in crisis: Bedrock commitments are being broken; Unnecessary hardship is being borne by Americans of all backgrounds; Our institutions are being recklessly and unconstitutionally attacked and even shattered.

In just 71 days, the President has inflicted harm after harm on Americans’ safety; financial stability; the foundations of our democracy; and any sense of common decency. These are not normal times in our nation. And they should not be treated as such in the United States Senate.

The threats to the American people and American democracy are grave and urgent and we all must do more to stand against them. Generations from now will look back at this moment and have a single question -- where were you?

-- U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) on the Senate floor as he began a speech that lasted 25 hours and 4 minutes (31 March - 1 April 2025), surpassing by 46 minutes the record previously held by Senator Strom Thurmond (R-SC) when he spoke against the Civil Rights Act in 1957