In the unfolding horror of the last three weeks, many Israelis have called the horrific attack from Hamas “Israel’s 9/11.” If that’s true, let’s hope they handle it better than we did. Unfortunately, it looks like they will not. In fact, it looks like they are following our playbook of revenge, wanton destruction, […]
Robin Meyers
Posted inNews
Violence begets violence
Word came this morning that Palestinian militants launched the largest surprise attack on Israel since Yun Kippur in 1973 and the two sides are now at war. More than 2,000 rockets have been launched into Israel, and communities bordering the Gaza Strip have been invaded and occupied. By the time you read this, Israel […]
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Is God a Christian nationalist?
The rhetorician Kenneth Burke is best known for his theories of human communication as drama, but perhaps his most famous quote is about the essence of the human species itself. This is pre-inclusive language, but otherwise it’s a masterpiece: Man is the symbol-using, symbol-making, symbol-misusing animal, inventor of the negative, separated from his natural […]
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No wonder people hate religion
I have spent my life working on the inside of organized religion, even though my love/hate relationship with most God-talkers makes me an outsider. A quick reminder for those who still go to church: Jesus was permanently — and lethally — on the outside of the religion of his time, and his denunciations of […]
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No taxation for indoctrination
When Oklahoma makes national news, it is often an embarrassment. Now it is also dangerous. The state’s virtual charter school board has approved on a 3-2 vote (thanks to a last-minute appointment by Gov. Kevin Stitt that guaranteed passage), to establish the first publicly-funded religious charter school in the United States. Gov. Stitt and Oklahoma […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The tyranny of screens
I recently ran across an amazing article in the New York Times that confirms much of my growing ambivalence about teaching in a world of glowing rectangles. It was entitled, “Why Universities Should Be More Like Monasteries,” by Molly Worthen, a historian at the University of North Carolina who writes about higher education. In it, […]
Posted inNews
Key to the outside
When Oklahoma lawmakers argue over what books children should be allowed to read, they seldom acknowledge the purpose of reading itself. They are mostly waging a political battle against “wokeness” (if anyone could define what that means) in which authors are writing about subjects that either shame children for the sins of their fathers, or […]
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Blaming the (big red) dog
This is becoming pathological, deeply disturbing and perhaps even a case for serious psychotherapy. Gov. Kevin Stitt wants to eliminate OETA because it “indoctrinates children.” Programs like Clifford the Big Red Dog are to blame, because there was an episode where someone had two mothers, and since that never actually happens in the real […]
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Thou shalt not lie … about kids.
If you didn’t know better, you might think Gov. Kevin Stitt was related to Mother Teresa. He is so concerned about poor children “trapped” in low-performing public schools without options that he plans to use state funds (whether vouchers or tax credits) to pay for private school tuition. Finally, he preaches, we will offer a […]
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Art is not pornography
When news came that a Florida principal had resigned after parents complained that their sixth-grade students were shown photos of Michelangelo’s David during an art history lesson, calling it “pornographic,” I was reminded that the spirit of the Puritans is alive and well in America, not to mention hysterical hypocrisy. One of the most […]