Gaza, Campus Protests...
and the announcement of an extra podcast next week
On this date, May 4, 1970, members of the Ohio National Guard fired on a crowd of Kent State students gathered to protest the Vietnam War. Four were killed, and several others were wounded. That pivotal moment in U.S. history, especially on college campuses, was 54 years ago.
Watching campus protests erupt today around the country, I view activism with nostalgia and worry. I appreciate the former Obama staffers who have challenged the Biden administration regarding not doing enough humanitarian relief for those trapped in Gaza.
I also worry that the radical right wants to use these protests to divide the country further, and I do ponder the connection between an assault on education at every level (as we are experiencing in Iowa) and the extent to which this is a coordinated, national agenda.
What am I smoking?
First, I did inhale, but not very often. Weed just put me to sleep and made me feel weird. Same with gummies. No, the suggestion that there are bad actors who are committed to sowing chaos and violence may seem far-fetched, but let’s keep it that way, please.
When the U.S. Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, took a gaggle of members of Congress to New York to talk tough about the protesters at Columbia University, Richard and I thought it sounded like they were trying to start a fight. I was reminded of the saying:
People who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.
The old protester in me says it’s about time students took a stand on public policy. I thought abortion bans, school shootings, banning books, attacks on LGBTQ, or any of a myriad of issues being ignored or inflamed by elected representatives on the state and national level would cause an uprising. That sentence is in no way meant to be dismissive of the horrific deaths taking place in Gaza or the attack on Israel that prompted the retaliation.
A Personal Aside
About 30 years ago, someone I know made a snide remark about my father in public statements. It was not only a thoughtless comment about a man long gone; the speaker was also dead wrong. I have not forgiven him and steer clear on the rare occasion when we’ve been in the same room or at a large social function. I had once held him with respect and now see him as a small, insecure man.
This relatively insignificant slight is in no way meant to connect the dots between the injustices endured by people around the world or in any way meant to be compared to the horrific starvation and death going on today in Gaza. It is only meant as a small example of how generational grudges show up.
I cannot fathom what it would be like if someone I loved had been physically harmed or had their property stolen by another person or government, especially out of so-called religious zealotry.
How must it feel to discover your ancestors were killed, tortured, sent to gas chambers en mass, forcibly removed from their homes, or ripped from a family and put on slave ships, whipped, and forced to serve some man they had to call master?
How deep is that feeling of hatred over generational injustices? Does it become part of our DNA?
How can there possibly be peace?
Let’s Talk
So, here we are in this growing Potluck community. I’m trying to figure out whether to let others who are more intelligent, better informed, and with more expertise tackle this issue or set the potluck table for a discussion.
Consider this your invitation to the conversation, where I feature at least two smarter, better-informed friends with expertise on the topics fueling today’s campus unrest.
I figure we need to be diligent. If we see something, we need to say something, and when I ask myself who benefits politically from the possibility of rioting in the streets, I suggest we all take heed and be on watch. Professional dirty tricksters are in our midst because what they do can work unless exposed. On Tuesday, May 7, we will have a special Zoom call to discuss what’s happening in Gaza, the Middle East, and college campuses.
I’ve asked two guests to join us. Corrine Whitlatch spent decades working on Capitol Hill with Churches for Middle East Peace. I’ve also invited
member to join us. He’s written some columns about the rise of anti-semitism and most recently posted a compelling analysis of the demonstrations and their impact. I’m hoping to expand the dialogue to include other points of view. Please share this with someone you think has something to add to the discussion.Heather Cox Richardson
is a Substack columnist who weighed in on the issue. You are in for a treat if you have not followed her column yet. She is a history professor at Boston College and launched her Letters from an American column in 2019. She has a podcast, so I appreciate her even more. In the first few minutes of this episode, she discusses using vodka in pie crust and then plunges into a topic she knows will generate passion, vitriol, and even death threats: the history of the Middle East.
This is her thing. She’s a history prof who provides context to issues of the day. So, if you were like me and didn’t pay close attention in history class, tune in to what
has to say about what’s going on at college campuses today. Double-clickRekha Basu will interview Heather Cox Richardson on Thursday, June 6, for the event Challenging Extremism—This is What Democracy Looks Like. The event will start with a reception at 5:45 p.m. at the Meadow Event Center. For more information, contact the Interfaith Alliance of Iowa.
SPECIAL ZOOM CALL ABOUT CAMPUS PROTESTS
We will have a special Zoom call on Tuesday, May 7, at 10:00 a.m. I have invited Corrine Whitlatch, who moved back to Des Moines after retiring from her Capitol Hill career, to be close to family.
Whitlatch worked for 21 years as the Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) director. Representing numerous Christian denominations, she promoted awareness about Middle East issues and advocated CMEP's policy platform: justice for Palestinians, a shared Jerusalem, and comprehensive peace.
I’ll be inviting others to join the discussion, including
, who has agreed to join the call.Would you like to? Subscribers will receive a link on Tuesday morning. You must be a subscriber to join the call, but you can subscribe for free.
Monday Zoom Call
Monday Zoom Call with
, writer of her Midwest Creative column, and a member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. Please join us with this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85646812566From Macey’s About page:
You might be wondering, who is Macey Shofroth?
I grew up in Monticello, Iowa, a town my family has lived in for three generations. My parents and uncle own and operate the local newspaper my grandpa began working at when he was sixteen. I have two older brothers and an older sister,r and I am a very proud aunt to three nephews and two nieces.
I studied Journalism and Creative Writing at the University of Iowa. I have been published in The Daily Iowan, College Magazine, Anti-Heroin Chic Magazine, and Witch Craft Magazine. I am a Marketing Coordinator for a DEI and cultural education nonprofit in West Des Moines called CultureALL where I write about diversity, inclusion, workplace relationships, and arts and culture.
My identity has been largely shaped by my experiences with Type 1 Diabetes. I was diagnosed when I was five years old and shortly began attending a camp for kids with diabetes, Camp Hertko Hollow. Camp quickly became my favorite place on Earth, my home away from home, and provided me with a family that I love dearly. I attended for nine summers as a child and have been volunteering as a counselor since I was 20.
One of those years, a tall, goofy counselor named Matt caught my eye. He had been attending camp since he was six and his mom, Lisa volunteers as a nurse. A walk down a hill, a few dates outside of camp, and five years later, he’d become my husband.
Matt became the Camp and Family Programs Manager of Camp Hertko Hollow in November of 2022. He now organizes and operates the camp, providing the life-changing experiences for children that shaped our lives.
We live in the Des Moines area with our two cats, Roxane (named for my favorite writer, Roxane Gay) and Rosalita (named for a song by one of his favorite musicians, Bruce Springsteen).
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By the way, if you don't listen to the Heather Cox Richardson podcast, let me just say one of the key takeaways from it for me was her statement that no one really knows what is going on in war. Beware the pontificators.
Excellent overview.