Events in Charlottesville, Virginia from the Dean of the New York Medical College

To the New York Medical College Community:

“We fondly hope that the instruction which may flow from this institution, kindly cherished, by advancing the minds of our youth with the growing science of the times, and elevating the views of our citizens generally to the practice of the social duties and the functions of self-government, may ensure to our country the reputation, the safety and prosperity, and all the other blessings which experience proves to result from the cultivation and improvement of the general mind.”
Thomas Jefferson, Virginia Board of Visitors Minutes (1821), ME 19:407

You need not hear from me regarding every headline in the daily news. Indeed, a college Chancellor oversteps his/her bounds by using the pulpit of position to advocate for particular political positions. Duke University’s President Nannerl Keohane taught me years ago that one should only speak publically in one’s capacity as Chancellor/President if the issue is of clear and vital interest to the mission of the university. In the last year I have exercised my prerogative to address you once on a matter of public discourse: attacks on the free movement of people and ideas. It is, however, necessary that I address the campus community again. Continue reading Events in Charlottesville, Virginia from the Dean of the New York Medical College

Educated #Evangelicals in the Era of #Trump

Click Here to Read: Educated #Evangelicals in the Era of #Trump-Pt. 1 by Christopher Stroop on the Patheos website on March 6, 2017.

Click Here to Read:  Educated #Evangelicals in the Era of #Trump-Pt. 2 by Christopher Stroop on the Patheos website on March 8, 2017.

Click Here to Read: Educated #Evangelicals in the Era of #Trump-Pt. 3 by Christopher Stroop on the Patheos website  on March 12, 2017.

Click Here to Read:  Educated #Evangelicals in the Era of #Trump-Pt. 4 by Christopher Stroop on the Patheos website on March 2o, 2017.

Venezuela: Where Have All the Leftists Gone? Daniel Benveniste

For nineteen years leaders of the North American left have publicly defended the Chávez-Maduro regime in Venezuela. Many were at the forefront of the anti-war movement of the ‘60s and ‘70s, the civil rights movement, and other progressive movements. They include: Noam Chomsky, Jesse Jackson, Oliver Stone, Sean Penn, Harry Belafonte, Mark Weisbrot, Jimmy Carter, Patrick Kennedy, Michael Moore, Cindy Sheehan, and Danny Glover. Lately they’ve gone silent.

I am a left-leaning Democrat and I have admired many of these leaders over the decades. I am originally from San Francisco but lived in Caracas, Venezuela from 1999-2010 where I personally witnessed Hugo Chávez’s so-called “leftist” revolution. There was never anything leftist about Chávez’s authoritarian demagogic regime. It was, from the beginning, a strong man military regime riddled with corruption, lies, and violence. Continue reading Venezuela: Where Have All the Leftists Gone? Daniel Benveniste