Harvard Stands Up To Trump

And a baseball cartoon (tis the season!)

Springtime in upper Manhattan

Harvard says it will not comply with Trump’s demands of asking for merit-based in hiring and admissions, and report international students who broke rules (whatever that means). Harvard calls this request illegal and is the first major university to say no to Trump. Other universities have pushed back, but Harvard is calling his demand illegal, which is a first for a higher institution. Fantastic.

“No government — regardless of which party is in power — should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue,” said Alan Garber, Harvard’s president, in a statement to the university on Monday. Last month, more than 800 faculty members at Harvard signed a letter urging the university to “mount a coordinated opposition to these anti-democratic attacks.”

Trump has been targeting high profile ivy league institutions, trying to control what they teach and who they hire and admit. It’s all a part of a plan to control dissent and critical thinking in the US; an effort to squash what the administration deams liberal wokeness. Private educational institutions have that right in our democracy to teach free thought and teach it with intellects of whatever race or creed they deem best.

I am on the board of my high school, Sidwell Friends School, and we have discussed how, if, and when Trump might go after secondary schools. Particuarly ones in his back yard in Washington DC like my highschool. Sidwell is a Quaker school, and the head of school and board will vehemently stand ground as a religious institution, which it is. But he and the board also stand firm on the right of private educational schools to operate as they feel is best for students, educating them to be critical thinkers, creative and fearless.

Trump’s defiance in returning wrongfully deported Maryland man today got the backing of the president of El Salvador, who was visiting the Oval Office. Trump is sending many detainees to the notorious prison in El Salvador, and paying their government to do so. The Trump administration admited that the man’s deportation was an administrative error, but is refusing to return him to the US, openly defying the court orders to send the innocent man home. It is a mess, and I suggest you read the NY Times report on the sequence of events. This is not just another deportation case, it is steeped in nefarious dealings and illegal obstruction of a person’s due process. I keep thinking this will lead to something major, but I don’t know what. Trump’s flouting of the judicial branch needs to be confronted in a major way.

Jeff Bezos’ stunt of flying celebrity women into space in his private space ship is nauseating. Pop star Katy Perry, CBS journalist Gayle King, aerospace engineer Aisha Bowe, feminist activist Amanda Nguyen, film producer Kerianne Flynn and Lauren Sánchez — the “television journalist, aviation businesswoman, philanthropist and children’s book author” who is engaged to marry Bezos. I suppose if it were anyone other than Bezos, who has tained and twisted and contaminated the Washington Post’s editorial stance, making the paper journalistically suspect, I might not be bothered. But then again, I might because of the celebrity nature of the flight and the blatant co-opting of feminism. He called it the “first all-woman space flight.” Technically true, but really tells us nothing about women’s rights. It was a publicity stunt.

Can you tell I am pissed of with the news today? Although Harvard’s stance is encouraging.

It’s the start of baseball season, and while on the local train today, I saw a lot of Yankees fans heading to an afternoon game. Always fun to see. So here is my offering of a cartoon to offset the news of the day. Hope you enjoy.

Thanks for being here, see you tomorrow. You guys are the best, and I really appreciate you!!