Daily Archives: February 28, 2022

Edward Burtynsky: For over 20 years my mother advocated for the people of Ukraine. She knows what it means to lose freedom and what it takes to fight to get it back.

I was with my 97-year-old mother at her retirement home this weekend. She was born in a small agrarian village outside of Kyiv and has been watching the unfolding assault on Ukraine with grave intensity and emotion.

My mother recalled for me her childhood, when Stalin brutally starved 10 million Ukrainians in what is now referred to as the Holodomor. She remembered going to bed hungry night after night and eating plain rice rolled in grape vine leaves. She attributed her survival to owning a cow that supplied her family with milk. But she watched in horror as other people in her town starved to death.

MORE:The only acceptable response to Vladimir Putin

When she turned 17, Hitlers army surrounded her town and told everyone to gather their clothes and paperwork. They rounded every teenager in her town up and put them on a cattle-car train. Several horrific days later thousands of Ukrainian youth were let out of the cars at the train station in Nazi Germany, where farmers took turns choosing their slaves. She spent four years doing back-breaking physical labour on a farm before the war ended and she was freed. She spent another five years in Germany as a displaced person trying to get anywhere but back to Ukraine. She did not want to go back to live under Stalins rule, having barely survived the Holodomor.

Morenci Mine #2, Clifton, Arizona, USA, 2012. Burtynsky made two of his photographs, including this one, specially available for certain people who donated to the Red Cross. (Photograph provided by Edward Burtynsky)

Eventually, my mother was able to find her way to Canada where she began a coveted life of freedom and opportunity. She raised four children and has been able to live her life here in comfort and peace. But she never forgot her neighbours and countrymen in Ukraine. For over 20 years, my mother continued to advocate for the freedom of Ukraine with a group of her friends in St. Catharines, Ont. As the president of the womens league for the freeing of Ukraineduring the period it was still under Soviet ruleshe and around 20 others would hold sales of perogies and cabbage rolls several times a year. They would send all the proceeds to Ukraine to help their efforts to break away from Soviet Russia.

In contrast to current events in Canada, at a time when there are those who try to equate mask and vaccine mandates with restrictions to their liberty, the stories of survivors of the Ukrainian Holodomor and the barbaric rule of Soviet Russia, survivors like my mother, are even more important. After everything she has been through, she watched these recent protests and was decidedly unimpressed. She knows better than most what it means to truly lose your freedom and what it takes to fight to get it back.

Now it seems the Kremlin failed to consider that their Goliath assault on Ukraine would be met with a Davidthe will of the Ukrainian people to keep the Russians from dominating the country that they fought so hard to free. Can any case be made that Ukraine would be better off under the rule of Putin, whose current regime and strategy has history repeating itself, leaving millions of people vulnerable? I think not. Dissenters, citizens, children, and the land itself are at risk of being destroyed in the wake of yet another unnecessary, unspeakable war. And many Russians agree, too. Currently, 5,000 Russian citizens are detained for protesting this unprovoked attack on their slavic neighbour.

It may not surprise you to learn that I cannot make perogies and cabbage rolls for a fundraiser. But I cheered my mother up when I told her that I had decided to do something to continue her work helping Ukraine.

READ:Why sanctions over the Ukraine invasion wont stop Putin

Photography is about light conquering darkness. In response to this crisis, I released a special edition of two of my photographs (15 each), and made these available to the first 30 people who donated $10,000 or more to the Red Cross Ukraine Humanitarian Crisis Appeal. Within 14 hours the prints sold out and we raised $300,000, and with the Government of Canadas pledge to match all Red Cross donations to Ukraine, that brings our total to $600,000. All proceeds went directly to the Red Cross.

I am incredibly grateful to the generous contributors to the Red Cross; these efforts have lent my mother strength, and given her much needed hope for her homeland in her twilight years.

This is a battle of democracy versus authoritarian rule and we in the free world must help Ukraine win. We can all do our part. From perogies to photography we all have a role to play in keeping Ukraine free.

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What it takes to truly fight for freedom in Ukraine - Maclean's

Form, Function - Freedom? Modernism, Ocean Liners, and Class

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The early 20th century saw the birth of Modernist architecture. It brought with it a central architectural movement that in turn birthed off-shoots of its own. A figure often seen as the defining face of this movement is Le Corbusier, whose 1923 treatise Toward an Architecture was influential to his Modernist contemporaries a manifesto including the phrase a house is a machine for living in where good architecture would have to be intrinsically linked to function and the demands of industry.

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In searching for design precedents where function and form have a harmonious relationship, transportation became, for Modernist groups of architects, a key source of inspiration. Cars for the likes of Le Corbusier became an obsession, with him seeing the automobile as an indisputable symbol of modernity. Another form of transportation, however, had an arguably even bigger impact. The ocean liner long-haul passenger ships becoming icons of exemplary design for a so-called architecture of the new age

It is easy to see why. Ocean liners at the turn of the 20th century were feats of engineering, large vessels that had the complicated task of combining long seafaring journeys with a comfortable experience for their passengers. The more expensive trips were on these passenger ocean liners, the more sophisticated their designs got, piquing the interest of architects who sought to translate their streamlined shapes, pipe railings and chic interiors to architectural developments on land.

This adoption of the ocean liner aesthetic in certain Modernist structures is made even more interesting when one dissects the societal backdrop that enveloped these buildings. It is a complicated discussion, because the ocean liner, with its extravagant interior design and association with the journeys of the rich, being able to serve as a vessel for further symbolising a building as that of the elite. The first-floor salon of Le Corbusiers formative Parisian Villa Savoye was deliberately designed to mimic the feel and appearance of the upper deck of an ocean liner. The white tubular railing that wraps around the curved staircase further adds to this effect. Villa Savoye, similar to many of Le Corbusiers early works, was a project for a wealthy client.

The ocean liner as a symbol of opulence was distilled by Le Corbusier into un-cluttered spaces and the removal of gaudy interiors, but ultimately still functioned as a symbol of wealth in a new machine age

Another architect connected to France Jean Prouv also looked to the nautical language of ships to develop his own strain of Modernism. His 1950s prefabricated Maisons Tropicales were prototype structures made from folded sheet steel and aluminium. The ocean liner inspiration had a muted presence in the design, only showing itself in circular perforations of the exterior wall a reference to a ships portholes. Although the nature of the design meant that it was, in effect, a makeshift structure, it would still function as a symbol of luxury, as the houses were designed for French officials stationed in Frances West African colonies. Its an apt representation of the limitations of some Modernist lines of thought.

A new age of mechanisation, ostensibly billed as a tool for reducing social ills and cultivating a more equal society, resulted in Jean Prouv simply repackaging an emblem associated with wealth the ocean liner porthole not for a radical client, but instead for the existing status quo of French colonial authorities. The ocean liners of old had a tiered system, where the distinctions between classes were immediately apparent in the design and space allocated for wealthy passengers versus the less-expensive classes. Prouvs Maisons Tropicales, while striving to harmonise African indigeneity with modern construction methods, were still perceptibly structures that sought to themselves as homes for Europeans distinguishing themselves from the vernacular architecture built by Africans in Frances West African colonies.

There does exist an example that has sought, and has succeeded, to turn the Modernist appeal of the ocean liner into a structure that seeks to democratise. The De La Warr Pavilion in the South Coast of England is, stylistically, a clear homage to the grand age of ocean liners, designed by Enrich Mendelsohn, who had fled Hitlers Germany, and Russian architect Serge Chermayeff.

Steel and concrete made up the skeleton of the pavilion, with large glass windows and cantilevered balconies derived from the appearance of large sea vessels. From its inception, however, the building was not envisioned as an elite club, but instead as a Peoples Palace. The Mayor a proponent of socialist thinking propagated that the building would act as a democratic social enterprise, a cultural centre easily accessible for the wider public. It was able to thrive as a premier entertainment venue, laying the groundwork for the Southbank Centre in London.

As Modernist architects sought to escape the boundaries of the architecture of antiquity, the ocean liner was a sensible illustration of progress, modernity, and the power of technology. With this illustration, some architects simply used the ocean liner as a purely stylistic symbol, a continuation of the ocean liner as a marker of affluence. For some Modernist buildings, however, the ocean liner was a stylistic choice in only a superficial sense where the complicated hierarchies of the passenger ocean liner were done away in favour of a more egalitarian, accessible structure.

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Form, Function - Freedom? Modernism, Ocean Liners, and Class - ArchDaily

Almost all of the bills that Republicans in the Wisconsin Legislature rammed through in the last week would have the effect of curbing our freedom to vote.Two bills would make voting by absentee ballot more difficult for all voters in Wisconsin.SB 939 would prohibit the Wisconsin Elections Commission or any local clerk from sending out absentee ballot applications, en masse, to registered voters, as was prudently done during the pandemic. Our ability to exercise our freedom to vote by mail should not be needlessly curtailed by this blanket prohibition.

I can understand that some legislators dont want a clerk in one locale to do this when a clerk in another locale isnt doing the same thing. But why shouldnt the Elections Commission be allowed to do this uniformly? If we want more people to be able to exercise their freedom to vote in our democracy, sending everyone an absentee ballot application makes sense, in general. And in specific, it makes a whole lot of sense during a pandemic. But this bill would nix both those options.

SB 935 would render an absentee ballot null and void for the pettiest of reasons. For instance, if Im a witness for the absentee voter and I print my name, and I sign my name, and I put Madison, WI, down as my residence but I neglect to put my street down, should the voter Im witnessing be disqualified because of that omission? The bill says yes, and that seems ridiculous to me.

Even requiring a witness seems like a stretch to me, since the voter already is swearing about his or her identity. Now to make the witness have to fill out everything just right or the voters ballot is disqualified just adds another way to toss a perfectly good ballot into the waste basket.

Whats more, SB 935 would make voting by absentee ballot especially more difficult for those in residential care facilities or retirement homes. SB 935 would paternalistically require the notification of relatives of residents in long-term care facilities or retirement homes as to when special voting deputies are going to be there. Residents dont need their relatives looking over their shoulders when theyre voting. This is an invasion of their privacy. Unless they have a legal guardian, residents should not have their freedom to vote interfered with in this obnoxious manner. What if they dont get along with the relatives for whom the home or facility has contact information? What business is it of the relatives, seriously?

SB 935 would also needlessly prohibit a personal care voting assistant from helping any resident of a residential care facility or qualified retirement home to register to vote. If the personal care voting assistant is there to help the resident fill out an absentee ballot, why cant the assistant help the resident register to vote? That distinction makes no sense. Plus, nursing homes that receive Medicare or Medicaid funding are required to support the residents right to vote. That should include supporting residents who want to register to vote.

And several of these bills would hog-tie the Wisconsin Elections Commission.

SB 940 would allow the Joint Finance Committee to gouge the staff or the funds of the Elections Commission if Joint Finance, on its own, says that the Elections Commission or the Department of Transportation or the Department of Corrections or the Department of Health Services failed to comply with any election law. That would give Joint Finance a huge whip over the heads of the Elections Commission, with no decent check on that unilateral power.

SB 941 would give the Joint Finance Committee and the Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules the authority to block federal funds and federal guidance, which will make it very difficult for the Commission to do its job. Its also of dubious constitutionality: States arent allowed to disregard federal guidance on the conduct of federal elections, for instance.

SB 941 would also inject hyper-partisanship at the staff level by mandating that each major political party gets its own legal counsel on the staff of the Wisconsin Elections Commission. The last thing we need is more partisan haggling at the Wisconsin Elections Commission. And why shouldnt the Green Party or the Libertarian Party have legal counsel on staff if the other parties get to? Thats discrimination.

SB 943 would require the Elections Commission to be nit-picked and hyper-monitored by the Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules. Every week, the Elections Commission would have to give to JCRAR all documents and communications from the commission that the commission issued in the previous week that are applicable to municipal clerks generally and qualify as guidance documents. This would amount to death by a thousand cuts for the Wisconsin Elections Commission.

There was one bill, SB 937, that was actually OK. Authored by Sen. Kathy Bernier, with a lot of input from disability rights activists, it would have clarified the status of indefinitely confined voters and offered some protections for them. But no Democrats would back it, preferring to take a unified stance against all the bills.

I actually think that was a mistake, morally and politically.

Morally, because the bill, while certainly not perfect, would have made some necessary improvements for persons with disabilities.

Politically, because it would have behooved Democrats to show that they were willing to work in a bipartisan manner when given a decent bill to sign.

Given the hyper-partisan climate in the Legislature, that might have been too much to ask.

But Gov. Evers could demonstrate some bipartisanship by signing SB 937 and then vetoing all the others, which are far, far worse.

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Republicans in Wisconsin try to curb our freedom to vote - Wisconsin Examiner

Photo By Asad Chishti for illustrative purposes.

Column By Walt Mares

I am a voracious lover of books, even more so since I retired after four decades of being a newspaper reporter.

I am dismayed by those in America who are burning books or demanding that many be removed from school libraries.

For me, that is a sacrilege.

These people are acting out against anything that may be controversial, such as the fact that racism and slavery ever existed. Yet I am not aware of any who are complaining or banning or burning books or other sources that may contain violence. Perhaps they are not aware of or do not care about the violence portrayed in video games millions of American children play.

Sure enough, many of those games involve destroying the opposition via violence. But no problem there, eh? What could possibly be wrong with Junior or Missy being involved in killing others, albeit on a screen?

My love for books dates back to fourth grade but began flourishing as an 8th grader when I got to take high school journalism.

Thats also when I fell in love with the school library. There, sitting alone, I read books that by todays standards might be outlawed then again, maybe not. Among them were Adolf Hitlers Mein Kampf (My Struggle) and the follow-up, My New Order.

Why was I so interested in the horror of Nazism? I wanted to learn how so many people could buy into what the maniac was espousing. It just did not make sense to me that so, so many would fall for something so ugly and dangerous.

At the time I began having a strong interest in a world-shaping event that involved the deaths of millions of people and the deaths of thousands of American troops. All because of Hitlers repeated lies.

I believe that interest may have been shaped by having learned what so many World War II veterans experienced when they served in the European Theater and battled the Nazis.

Another important book, though I found it difficult to read, was Darwins The Origin of Species. It required me to use a dictionary to understand some of the words.

The book has over the years made many evangelicals shudder and decry Darwin and evolution as atheistic and more.

Fast-forward to my freshman year. I had saved up some money from working in the fields during the summer. I bought a paperback copy of Doctor Zhivago. I had it on top of some other books I took to an English class. The teacher, who claimed to be part of a church in which the members call themselves saints, saw the book and took it away from me claiming it was not fit for people to be read, especially for someone as young as I.

What a bummer. He rejected my pleas when I told him I had worked hard to buy it.

I had underestimated the zeal of his self-righteousness. Maybe the teacher considered the book taboo as it involved Russia and at that time the U.S. and Russia were mortal enemies the Cold War. However, I doubt that.

After I graduated from high school, I borrowed Dr. Zhivago from the library of our local college. It was long but excellent. It was astounding to me that it was not loaded with anything sexual or vulgar things that might have caused a teacher to snatch it away.

These many years later what remains in my mind from my readings in the high school library are the many, many book burnings that occurred during Hitlers reign. He demanded that materials that did not align with his way of thinking were not just banned but burned. He particularly hated any texts that dealt with psychology or anything he considered intellectual.

In other words, anything that might cause people to think about anything other than loyalty to him and the murderous Nazi philosophy. That is if one could even consider that as a philosophy. Better yet, describe it as evil dogma and propaganda.

Hitler used fear as a quite effective tool to rule, and people fell under his spell. He frequently used lies to stir the masses. Lies and more lies. Any lie frequently repeated gradually gains acceptance. So said a Nazi propagandist.

Sound familiar?

As for books, nothing was allowed that might dispel that fear or contradict Hitlers lies. The fewer people knew, the better for the madman.

Toward his ends, burning books was very effective. That is one of the reasons I was shocked make that stunned when I saw a video of books being burned by a group in Texas. The culprits were shown gleefully cheering as the flames climbed.

Were they drunk? Perhaps. Then again maybe they were just under the spell of ignorance, ugliness, stupidity, and, foremost, lies repeated on television or online.

It is frightening to see actual books burning here in the nation that defeated Hitler. What might come next?

So now I am concerned about freedom of thought in the land of the free.

The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author.

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Editorial: Freedom of thought is sacred, but not to some - The Gila Herald

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Economic freedom is one of mankinds best ideas. It is responsible for more advances in living standards, health, knowledge, multicultural harmony, and social justice than anything else weve come up with in the last 2,000 years. The Heritage Foundations new Index of Economic Freedom proves that the world needs free markets today more than ever.

The 2022 Index catalogs a tough year for the four broad policy areas and 12 specific categories reflected in each nations overall score. Globally, the average economic freedom score fell from 61.6 down to 60 the fourth consecutive annual decline. The U.S. score fell 2.7 points to 72.1, putting us 25th in global rankings of economic freedom five slots lower than last year and the lowest America has ever fallen.

The main source of this decline in 2021 globally and domestically was once again governments responses to COVID-19. The toll the pandemic took on the nations health was obviously enormous. But across the globe, so too were the costs of counterproductive government responses. Regardless of how well-intentioned, policies that restricted economic freedom did little to arrest COVID-19s spread, but much to exacerbate its economic costs.

Lockdowns, travel bans, trade restrictions, and social distancing all curbed economic activity and growth and had a devastating effect on local communities. As always, government relief was no substitute for the solidarity, opportunity, and mobility generated by voluntary exchanges between buyers and sellers.

Even nations spared COVID-19s worst ravages were nonetheless hurt by the global economic downturn statism fueled. And of course, some pandemic policy dysfunction, like long-COVID itself, will be robbing us for years to come. We may never know, for instance, the full cost of the learning-loss inflicted on American schoolchildren masked these past two years to satisfy teachers unions demands.

This 1.6-point global decline in economic freedom represents trillions of dollars of lost health care, housing, agriculture, infrastructure, energy, technology, mining, and manufacturing over the lifetimes of children born around the world last year. It means more poverty, less education, and stronger temptations for tyrants and demagogues to exploit rather than serve their people.

The silver lining in the 2022 Index is the same silver lining in every annual Index: economic freedom still works. Even amid the social upheaval of a global pandemic, there remain strong correlations between countries economic freedom scores and their quality of life, as measured in per capita income, health, educational attainment, environmental quality, technological innovation, democratic governance, and adherence to the rule of law.

The COVID-19 pandemic no more redeemed or justified statist policies than other crises past generations of politicians exploited to advance them, from the Great Depression to the Great Recession to the harrowing disruptions globalization visited upon Americas blue-collar communities. Free enterprise is not the cause of these challenges its the solution.

Nor is capitalism the sandbox of elite privilege left-wing pundits (many of them millionaires) disparage. On the contrary, by rewarding hard work, marriage, and thrift, promoting upward mobility, fueling civil society, and creating generational family wealth, free markets accomplished more for diversity, equity, and inclusion than every faculty senate, Critical Race Theorist, or New York Times editorial put together.

Just because economic freedom is unfashionable today doesnt make it ineffective. The human spirit, expressed in individual initiative, remains every bit as much the wellspring of community and global prosperity as it was when the Soviet empire fell. American conservatives, in particular, tempted by the clicks and frisson of ideological novelty, should remember: there is nothing more elitist than central economic planning, and nothing more populist than free markets roiling with hungry competitors and empowered consumers.

That the whole world stepped back from economic freedom last year is all the more reason American policymakers should embrace it anew to seize the opportunities everyone else passed up. The political current is always running toward statism. But as G.K. Chesterton said, a dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.

Ever since Americas founding upon principles of market capitalism that elites hated then as now we have been the living thing in the global economy. For two centuries, we defied the cronyism and timidity of corporate and political insiders and entrusted our economy to our people and that has made all the difference.

As Heritages 2022 Index shows once again, economic freedom is not something Americans should apologize for, but harness, spur, and give free rein for our own sake, and everyone elses, too.

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Economic freedom, now more than ever - Washington Times

You shouldn't try to make yourself into something you're not.

That was the adviceWilliam Pariswas given by his academic supervisor in graduate school. At the time, he was studying European philosophers but finding his interest waning.

I began realizing these figures couldn't answer the questions I was interested in, says Paris, a new assistant professor in the University of Torontos department of philosophy in the Faculty of Arts & Science.

I was asking questions like, What is the relationship between slavery and modern politics now? How is it that racism continues to be a problem, even though it has been thoroughly delegitimated ideologically and scientifically? It felt like I was trying to push a square peg into a round hole.

Following his supervisors words and his own passions Paris became a scholar of Africana philosophy, exploring thinkers from Africa as well as philosophers of the African diaspora who settled in the Caribbean, North America and around the world.

Africana philosophy asks questions around, How does racism reproduce itself? What does national belonging mean? It tries to understand the relationship between race, colonialism and empire.

Who are some of these philosophers?

There are several, but Paris wishes more people knew about W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963) and Frantz Fanon (1925-1961).

An American sociologist, historian, author and activist, Du Bois is regarded as the most important Black protest leader in the United States during the first half of the 20th century. He was one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Du Bois is essential for asking the questions like what does it mean to say that a society has racial problems or that society is structurally racist? says Paris.

Considered ahead of his time, Du Bois was an early champion of using social science data to solve social issues for the Black community. His writing, includingThe Souls of Black Folk, became required reading in African American studies.

He's not just a great lyricist, says Paris. He's an incredible philosopher who gives insight into what it means to try to figure out a relationship between philosophy and social science that can lead us to more liberatory forms of life.

Fanon, meanwhile, was a psychiatrist and political philosopher from Martinique who was concerned with the psychosocial repercussions of colonialism on colonized people. His major contributions to de-colonial thinking stemmed from his experiences working at the Blida-Joinville Hospital in Algeria during the Algerian War of Independence (1954-1962).

He later created a model for community psychology, believing that many mental health patients would fare better if they were integrated into their families and communities, rather than being treated in institutionalized care settings.

For him, it was never about blaming people for their unhealthy behaviors, says Paris. It was about reconstructing a society that embraces the human creatures we are so that we can have healthy relationships with one another.

I'm drawn to these Africana thinkers who are also interested in scientific study, adds Paris. They weren't just talking about their lived experience. They wanted to develop objective methods that can allow us to grasp what the problem is and then transform it.

Du Bois and Fanon are sometimes referenced in his course, Philosophy and Social Criticism, which focuses on how our notions of justice change over time.

We've finished the first unit which is about critiquing the present what does it mean to understand the time you're living in? says Paris.

The course includes discussions of contemporary philosophers such as Martin Hgglund and his bookThis Life, in which he argues that spiritual questions of freedom are inseparable from economic and material conditions, and that what matters is how we treat one another in this life and what we do with our time.

Then we read Theodor Adorno and his essay calledFree Time, where he argues that the very fact that we have to call our time free means that its not actually very free.

The course also addresses philosophy as it relates to climate change and the role of politics.

Often our democracy focuses on how we meet the needs of the existing population, but we're increasingly talking about what world are we handing down to our grandchildren who are not here yet. says Paris.

In addition to teaching, Paris and some academic colleagues host a monthly podcast calledWhats Left for Philosophythats described as, Four Marxist friends discussing philosophy, politics, and culture.

Were trying to make philosophy accessible to those who don't study philosophy or even to those who do in an effort to rediscover the joy of thinking, says Paris.

With rotating hosts and guests, theres no competition to see who knows or understands more. Instead, its a relaxed atmosphere where the ideas, theories and discussion flow freely.

We're just here to think together, says Paris. It's actually a way for me to decompress.

Paris is also working on a book calledRacial Justice and Forms of Life: Towards a Critical Theory of Utopian Epistemology.

The book begins with the question: Why is it so hard to complete the project of racial justice in countries, primarily in the West?

The manner in which we arrange our lives makes it so that racial hierarchy and domination are almost inevitable consequences, so we shouldn't be surprised our efforts in modifying problems of racial justice keep being stymied, says Paris.

I'm arguing that we need to develop new habits and new modes of knowing that can allow us to understand how we can develop a new form of life. Its important for us to get beyond the pessimism of, All we can do is modify the status quo and accept disappointment, and ask the real question of what it would mean to move past disappointment and actually complete a project of freedom.

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'A project of freedom': U of T's William Paris on the wisdom of Africana philosophy - News@UofT

Most Americans believe that school should be a place where children from different places and races learn from the past, make sense of the present and prepare for the future. Though educators try hard to provide our children with accurate and honest education, some politicians are trying to turn us against schools so they can censor whats taught in our classrooms and write certain groups out of our history books. Their book-banning requests focus on works with racial, gender, or LGBTQ-related themes, many of them revered classics and historical works. These are real efforts to block teaching about the contributions of groups that have been historically marginalized and about the legacy of racism that our countrys heroes have striven, and continue to strive, to overcome.

The freedom to learn is a fundamental right. Our children deserve the opportunity to develop the knowledge and skills to reckon with our past, shape a better future, and pursue their dreams.

By speaking up at school boards and contacting our elected leaders and urging them to do everything in their power to stop this anti-learning wave, we can protect the freedom to learn and ensure every child receives the quality education they deserve.

Todd Schneider,

Cuyahoga Falls

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Let your voices be heard that freedom to learn is a fundamental right - cleveland.com

The classical, folk and world-music flautist Eliza Marshall is touring her Rhythms of Migration album this month

March 14, 2020: I remember gazing out at a packed Lyceum Theatre, to a sold-out show of The Lion King, while at the same time reading about Broadway closing down. Two days later, the West End went dark. Who could have predicted what was to come?

But from challenging times, new shoots can grow. What is it that we as artists are able to express through our music? What opportunities are there during a time like this? Many of us have had to quickly adapt over the last two years; never has the power of music and art seemed so needed and worthy, and yet so bleak and out of reach. As we see venues reopening, and people venturing out, now seems like a poignant time to launch a project that was crafted during lockdown. Born three years ago as a concept of film, music and visual art, Freedom To Roam represents hugely important topics climate change, migration, rewilding, empathy and human displacement.

At a time when we are inundated by depressing news, this project, which I initiated in 2018 during a visit to Coll, the inner Hebridean island, has allowed us to look for compassion, hope and potential. We recorded the album, called The Rhythms of Migration, in Wales late last year with a group of outstanding musicians including the harpist Catrin Finch, the multi-instrumentalist Dnal Rogers and the leader of Britten Sinfonia Jackie Shave, each of whom also composed original tracks for the recording. My own tracks feature, too, and I play flutes, whistles and Indian bansuri. Along with other musicians including Kuljit Bhamra on tabla and Joby Burgess on percussion, we created a fusion of African, Celtic and Indian sounds, which Gramophones sister title Songlines described in its recent review as inspirational and thought-provoking.

The project is threefold, consisting of not only the album but also a documentary Connected, by award-winning director Nicholas Jones, which premiered at Cecil Sharp House in December and a touring concert. Each concert begins with a screening of the film, after which we perform The Rhythms of Migration in its entirety, accompanied by stunning visual art from Amelia Kosminsky.

What is the point of being alive if we arent helping each other? asks Claire Keegan in her book Small Things Like These. From little acorns grow mighty oaks.

Freedom to Roamhas received support from Arts Council UK, Kickstarter Campaign and The Royal Philharmonic Society. The spring tour runs until March 2 click here for more information. Eliza spoke toGramophoneabout collaborating on a new ballet with Joby Talbot read the article here

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Finding 'freedom to roam' during the pandemic - Gramophone

Washington, DC Congressman Mo Brooks (AL-05) introduced the Freedom to Fly Maskless Act. The bill will prohibit the federal government from mandating masks, negative COVID-19 tests, and vaccinations on public transportation, including domestic flights, now and in the future.

Original cosponsors: Congressman Paul Gosar, D.D.S. (AZ-04), Congressman Jeff Duncan (SC-03), Congressman Bob Gibbs (OH-07), Congressman Scott Perry (PA-10), Congressman Brian Mast (FL-18), Congressman Brian Babin (TX-36), Congressman Thomas Tiffany (WI-07), Congresswoman Mary Miller (IL-15), and Congressman Byron Donalds (FL-019).

Congressman Brooks said, The American people are sick and tired of being dictated to by unelected Washington bureaucrats. As we have seen throughout the pandemic, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has worked with other entities like the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to impose masks, testing, and vaccination requirements. Unelected bureaucrats have falsely claimed the power to foist unnecessary and anti-science mandates on the American people. These mandates have resulted in good Americans being fired from their jobs, being jabbed with needles against their will, and even losing their businesses in some cases. It is time to throw off the heavy boot of tyranny thats crushing the American spirit. Washington bureaucrats need reminding that America was founded on freedom and liberty.

Brooks concluded, My bill, the Freedom to Fly Maskless Act would prohibit unelected Washington bureaucrats from requiring masks, tests, and vaccinations on public transportation, including domestic flights. Each individual has the right to decide what health precautions they want to take when confronting Communist Chinas lab-created virus or any future illness. Let me be clear, there is no amount of mandates and dictates that will end the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 will continue to spread. Americans must learn to live with this virus because its going to be with us long-term. Continued mandates are not justified, and its long past time Americans return to our pre-pandemic lives.

Background:

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Excerpt from:

the "Freedom to Fly Maskless Act" | Congressman Mo Brooks - Congressman Mo Brooks

In late 1990, I was part of a group of Canadians recruited by a professor from McMaster University and funded by Canadas department of External Affairs to go to the recently independent country of Ukraine to teach political operatives about political parties in a democracy. The curriculum included fundraising, community organization. advertising. media relations, E-day organization, strategy, etc.

The Berlin Wall had fallen one year earlier on Nov. 9, 1989 and the thirst for freedom shone brightly in our Ukraine classroom. Approximately 150 individuals, representing 30 or 40 political parties, showed up to attend two weeks of lectures from our group.

Howard Aster, a political science professor from McMaster, recruited a multi-party group of instructors including, as I recall, Jim Coutts and Martin Goldfarb from the Liberals, myself and others from the PC Party and several from the NDP and a variety of advertising and media buy companies. We represented political parties from across the political spectrum from the Green Party to the Communist Party of Ukraine.

There were some unusual aspects to the logistics to our trip. Aster had to bring a huge crate of toilet paper from Toronto because that was not available in Kyiv. Once that basic comfort was provided for, I remember sleeping on a wooden bunk bed with a thin mattress in the building that a year earlier had been the Communist Party headquarters. It was quite surreal.

I came away from that experience with a positive feeling about the future prospect for democracy in Ukraine. The people we met were eager and thirsty for freedom and it seemed to me prepared to work hard to achieve that end.

It reinforced my only other experience with Ukraine politics. In 1988, I learned of the hard work and courage shown by a young Torontonian of Ukrainian descent, Borys Wrzesnewskyj, who drove a crate containing a printing press and three million pieces of paper in a transport truck from St. Petersburg in Russia to Kyiv and then prepared political pamphlets urging the breakup of the U.S.S.R. and freedom for the people of Ukraine. (Wrzesnewskyj later became a Liberal MP for Etobicoke Centre). The address on the crate was Shakespeare-Kyiv.

I have seen many media clips describing the courage of Ukraine leadership and its citizens in these early days of Putins violent assault on their country. The words of Ukranian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy I dont need a ride, I need ammunition will be etched in the history books alongside those of Winston Churchill when people google the words political courage.

The events of this week pose a serious threat to democracy and freedom in Ukraine. However, the strong resolve, defiance and courage exhibited thus far suggest that it may take more than Putin counted on to extinguish the thirst for freedom in Kyiv and Zelenskyy, the comedian turned politician, may have the last laugh.

John Laschinger is a veteran political organizer best known for organizing election campaigns and party leadership bids for a variety of candidates.

The rest is here:

A first-hand account of Ukraines thirst for freedom in 1990 - Toronto Star