Category Archives: Freedom

The wind was whipping, and the sun was still bright when Ken Johnston and Deborah Price started a 165-mile Walk to Freedom from the beach at Cape May, at the Sunset Pavilion Saturday afternoon.

They are walking to Burlington in a segment-walk over the next several weekends and expect to finish by May 8.

The goal is to resurrect the voices and memories of the people who history has forgotten, and to recognize the families that were separated and reunited by their love for each other and their quest for freedom, said Johnston, who lives in West Philadelphia, near Cobbs Creek.

Johnston, 60, has completed several long-distance walks over the last five years. His first walk in 2017 in Massachusetts where he once lived, was for health and personal reasons.

In 2018, he completed a 400-mile solo trip from Selma to Memphis, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It was his first Walk to Freedom march.

In 2019, he walked 71 miles across Northern Ireland, from Belfast to Derry, commemorating the 1969 Peoples Democracy March.

And at Christmas 2019, he began an earlier walk following Harriet Tubmans journey from Maryland to Philadelphia. Because of COVID-19, he did not complete his walk to Harlem in New York until 2021.

Johnston embarked on the latest walk to honor Tubman because this year marks the bicentennial anniversary of her birth in March 1822.

They will follow the general routes of people who were freedom seekers, not runaway slaves, as most historians have called those fleeing from captivity.

But Johnston said he also wanted to call attention to the people whose names and stories are not remembered as much as Tubmans.

For instance, their walk will include stops by the Peter Mott House in Lawnside, where Mott, a free Black American preacher, and his wife, Eliza, gave shelter to freedom seekers.

They will also stop by Jacobs Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Mount Laurel, and at the historic Timbuctoo Village, where free and formerly enslaved people formed a Black settlement in 1826.

There will also be visits to sites in Salem and Elsinboro Township in Salem County and Greenwich, including Springtown, in Cumberland County.

Johnston said there were abolition activists, free Black men and women, Quakers and Native Americans who provided shelter and food to those escaping slavery.

People can keep up with the 165-journey by visiting Johnstons Our Walk to Freedom blog here.

There is evidence that freedom seekers from Maryland crossed the Delaware Bay and landed at the beach near Sunset Pavilion.

But there is no evidence that Harriet Tubman crossed the bay with them, said Cynthia Mullock, the executive director of the Harriet Tubman Museum in Cape May.

We do have evidence that she was working here in 1852 as a domestic worker and cook for families and hotels.

It was more likely that Tubman worked most closely with Philadelphia-based abolitionists, such as Stephen Smith, a wealthy lumber company owner, who had a summer house in the beach town, across the street from the current Harriet Tubman Museum, at 632 Lafayette St.

Mullock said that although Tubman may not have crossed the bay something that some historians have not ruled out it is more likely that Tubman and other abolitionists helped those who did land at Sunset Pavilion beach to make their way north through New Jersey and on to New York or Canada.

At the Harriet Tubman Museum, Johnston and Price were joined by two other walkers, Rebecca Perrone, a Willingboro City Council member and William Calvin, her fiance.

They left the museum by 6 p.m. Saturday for the hard part of the 15-mile journey to Cape May Court House.

An Inquirer reporter found them along Route 9 heading north about 8 p.m. It was dark and traffic whizzed by.

They didnt arrive in Cape May Court House until about 11:30 p.m. Saturday, Johnston said Sunday.

Johnston said the first leg of the 165-mile trip from Cape May is the only segment that was scheduled to be conducted at night.

We wanted to simulate the way the freedom seekers would have traveled, Johnston said. They would have traveled by night to avoid being captured.

Just three months ago, Johnston and Price, who lives in Willingboro, were strangers.

They met when Johnston, who works in human resources, visited the Underground Railroad Museum in Eastampton, near Mount Holly, to research his South Jersey walk.

Price, 65, who has worked as a bank examiner and regulator, volunteers at the Underground Railroad Museum.

Price was so intrigued as Johnston described his plans that he invited her to come along.

On Sunday morning, Price and Johnston started out from Cape May Court House with the sky overcast and a few sprinkles of rain. They were joined later by Perrone and Calvin, who caught up with them while they were stopping to talk to people along the way.

As they began walking Sunday, they decided to walk only eight miles to Dennisville, rather than the previously announced 15-mile destination to Delmont, N.J.

From the road, as they approached Route 47, Price said, This walk is becoming very therapeutic for me. We are looking at the environment, looking at the greenery thats out here. The color of the muddy waters.

Its been beautiful, she said. People have been supporting us by flashing their lights, or stopping to talk with Ken.

They met one woman picking dandelions who talked with them about the walk.

For Price, the walk meant reflecting on how the past, the meaning of the walk to freedom by people who had been enslaved, has meaning for news of today.

I found myself not only think about Harriet, but a lot of the folks who are on the same mission trying to get freedom today.

I thought about the Ukrainian women, carrying their children and trying to escape the war, I thought about the people in Mexico, trying to cross the border and the people in Haiti, all needing freedom. So many things cross your mind.

Read the original post:

To honor Harriet Tubman and others, this 165-mile Walk to Freedom traces South Jersey Underground Railroad routes - The Philadelphia Inquirer

Academic freedom has become a polarizing topic. Recent issues at the University of Ottawa expose ongoing challenges of balancing academic freedom with university community members rights to respectful and safe classroom and campus spaces.

In October 2021, the universitys Committee on Academic Freedom issued a report that examined academic freedom, freedom of expression, equity, diversity and inclusion and the legal aspects of these issues.

This work was set in motion after controversy surrounding a professor who used a derogatory word for Black people in class.

The committees report, and wider commentary about the University of Ottawa controversy, point to the need for greater public discussion to understand how academic freedom relates to responsibility.

As a PhD researcher who examines structural and systematic racism embedded in social institutions, including in education systems, I believe its critical to consider failures to understand academic freedom as an ethical concept, rather than simply a neutral objective standard.

At universities, faculty collective agreements and university policies spell out frameworks for academic freedom.

But as University of Ottawas Committee on Academic Freedom noted, universities definitions and policies vary, sometimes significantly, in the ways they spell out wider rights, responsibilities, obligations and limits or how academic freedom relates with equity, diversity or ethics.

The University of British Columbia distinguishes between freedom of expression protected in Canada under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and academic freedom in an FAQ about these issues on the university website:

Most significantly, academic freedom is not a legal right, but rather a right or a privilege bestowed by an institution of higher learning. It might best be construed as an ethical right, insofar as it serves good ends: the advancement and dissemination of knowledge.

When speakers seek to responsibly disseminate knowledge, they must be aware of who theyre speaking to, and how what theyre saying may resonate.

In October 2020, after the University of Ottawa classroom incident, Qubec Premier Franois Legault criticized the university for suspending the professor at the centre of the issue.

As a fully bilingual university close to the Qubec border, the University of Ottawa has close connections with the province.

At a news conference, the premier said, I dont think there should be banned words, and Its as if [the university] has censure police.

The premiers comments illustrated power and privilege. Their wider related effects, including discussion around Qubecs commission to study academic freedom, have added to the division among professors and students at the University of Ottawa.

In its report, the University of Ottawas Academic Freedom Committee made several recommendations, including:

further work to ensure the university community has a wider understanding of principles of academic freedom;

clear criteria and mechanisms are needed for making complaints;

university administration should establish an action plan to fight racism, discrimination and cyberbullying;

affirming the need to protect academic freedom and freedom of expression in fulfilment of its teaching and research mission. The committee said its against institutional or self-censorship that is apt to compromise the dissemination of knowledge or is motivated by fear of public repudiation.

Im specifically concerned about what this last point will mean, especially given that the reports recommendations dont address how professors need to demonstrate self-awareness of their own social positions in how they exercise responsibility.

More discussion is needed about how power shapes identities and access to learning. Communities also need to consider students who experience moral injury when people use irresponsible language and are unaccountable for their privilege.

In June 2021, the Black, Indigenous and People of Colour Professors & Librarians Caucus Working Group at the University of Ottawa made a submission to Committee on Academic Freedom. It stressed that notions of academic freedom cannot be divorced from respect for dignity and integrity in the classroom. This caucus also made ample suggestions about practical ways to urgently tackle systemic racism at the university. This is necessary for creating safer spaces for all community members.

Academics concerned about academic freedom and the quality of education note that academic freedom needs to be concerned with the quality of speech and the context in which its uttered.

As interdisciplinary scholar Farhana Sultana argues, some academics participate in the erosion of academic integrity when they apply scholarly veneer to hateful ideologies. She writes:

At a time when there are concerted efforts to decolonize academia, there is concurrent rise of colonial nostalgia and white supremacy among some academics, who are supported by and end up lending support to the escalating far-right movements.

To fully and freely engage in dialogue in the classrooms, professors must recognize different aspects of their identities such as race, gender, sexuality, language and consider how what they say may resonate among varied groups.

Educators seeking to balance the need for sincere and challenging dialogue and responsibility have explored the notion of moving from safe spaces to brave spaces.

Read more: 4 ways white people can be accountable for addressing anti-Black racism at universities

In the article, From Safe Spaces to Brave Spaces: A New Way to Frame Dialogue Around Diversity and Social Justice, student affairs educators Brian Arao and Kristi Clemens define safe space as a learning environment that allows students to engage with one another over controversial issues with honesty, sensitivity and respect. They also explore how the notion of safety can become conflated with comfort.

Arao and Clemens argue that education about difficult issues may be shocking and uncomfortable, but its possible to do so in respectful ways through social justice teaching practices that foster diversity and inclusion. Other researchers have developed these ideas further.

There is an ethical responsibility by professors to provide space for challenging discussions. This necessarily includes not perpetrating old structures that were built on casting out marginalized groups. Professors have a responsibility not to humiliate racialized students or use racist or discriminatory language.

Standards of ethical and professional behaviour have progressed, and the practice of academic freedom should adapt.

As anti-racist and feminist scholar bell hooks also argued, whats needed is learning how to teach students to transgress against racial and class boundaries that promote white supremacy or a hierarchy of human dignity.

I remain hopeful that with ongoing collaborative engagement from administrators and policy-makers, change will occur in our educational system.

See more here:

Academic freedom can't be separated from responsibility - The Conversation

Vietnamese seminarians line up during ceremonies at the Catholic Church of Hanoi in Vietnam. | Aaron Favila / AP

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has put out its report for 2022. In it, the USCIRF attacks Vietnam, claiming religious freedom is not protected there. The USCIRF recommends labeling Vietnam as a country of particular concern, or CPC.

As Peoples Word reported last year, the repeated claims about the lack of religious freedom in Vietnam are baseless allegations used to vilify the socialist country. To better understand the situation and the gravity of USCIRFs suggestion, its important to understand the history of this commission and its makeup.

In 1998, seeing itself as the worlds hegemon, the United States government passed the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, which created the USCIRF. The new body was empowered to research and report on the state of religious freedom in every country around the worldevery country, that is, except for the United States, the one country that the United States government actually has authority over.

The USCIRF issues a yearly report and recommends that the U.S. Secretary of State label countries it judges to be lacking religious freedom, as countries of particular concern. Such countries are then subject to sanctions of various sorts.

From its inception, the USCIRF has been criticized as a tool of cultural imperialism. It has also been repeatedly accused of spreading a Christian agenda and of holding a specifically anti-Muslim and anti-Hindu bias.

The USCIRF is made up of as many as 10 commissioners, although at the moment there are only nine. Among its current members are Nadine Maenza and Tony Perkins. Maenza is the president of Patriots Voice, a right-wing, conservative Christian non-profit group, founded by former Republican Sen. Rick Santorum. Perkins, a fundamentalist Christian, is head of the anti-LGBTQ hate group Family Research Council and has reportedly worked with David Duke, infamous for being a leader of the Ku Klux Klan.

This is the body the U.S. government claims has the right to evaluate and judge the religious freedoms of other countries.

In the USCIRFs report on Vietnam, it acknowledges that religious freedom is protected by the Constitution of Vietnam. However, it points to a clause in the constitution that allows certain freedoms to be suspended when national security is at risk, using it as a reason to claim that religious freedom is therefore not actually protected in Vietnam.

All countries on Earth have a right to protect their national security. In fact, the United States also suspends religious freedoms in the name of national security. If the Islamic State terror group tried to set up an institution in the United States and recruit new members, this would be deemed a threat to national security and its actions would not be protected as religious freedom.

Why is the United States holding Vietnam to a different standard than it holds itself? Why is Vietnam being told to sacrifice its security by the United States when the United States wouldnt do the same?

Another part of the USCIRFs report highlights a 2018 law passed by Vietnams National Assembly that requires religious organizations to register their existence with the government. This law was enacted to protect Vietnamese citizens from scams and abuse. There were a number of cases where someone claiming to be teaching one religion or another would con people out of their life savings or trick people into servitude.

The law requiring registration of legitimate religious institutions creates a database where Vietnamese people can check whether an organization they are interested in is legitimate or not. There are numerous religions practiced throughout Vietnam, from traditional Vietnamese religions, to Buddhism, to various Christian faiths, to Islam. None of these religious groups have had any issues following the registration system.

The report claims that smaller religions such as Cao Dai are persecuted. Yet anyone can visit Cao Dai temples and the Cao Dai Holy See is located in Tay Ninh, Vietnam, and practices freely. In fact, the beauty of Cao Dai houses of worship makes them popular sites for tourists that visit the region.

Given that the claims made by the USCIRF do not line up with the reality in Vietnam, and given what is known about the USCIRF, its role, and its makeup, it is clear that this bodys report on religious freedom in Vietnam is pushing a political agenda.

For anyone that has followed the history of the United States over the last century, it becomes clear that the report is a continuation of an old pattern. The USCIRF is still spreading anti-Communist propaganda that claims Communists and countries governed by Communist Parties are anti-religion. And now they want to threaten the people of Vietnam with sanctions to help spread these lies.

The true crime here is not being committed by the Vietnamese government. Rather its the cultural imperialism of the United Statesa big, rich countrywhich is targeting a smaller socialist country and trying to bully it into capitulating and following its will. One would think that the United States government would have learned by now that when they try to bully Vietnam, the venture ends in failure.

Continue reading here:

Extremist-dominated 'religious freedom' commission in the U.S. targets Vietnam - People's World

Multimedia artist Sama Alshaibi consistently interrogates the female form as a nexus point for politics, histories, climate, and forced migrations. Her exhibition Four Series at Zane Bennett Gallery spans 15 years of artistic inquiry with a selection of photographs from four discrete bodies of work: Carry Over (2019), Silsila (2009-2017), Between Two Rivers (2008-2009, 2016), and Negatives Capable Hands (2007-2010). Each series represents a facet of her interrogation, drawing on historical sources, contexts, and techniques to articulate the definitions and exploitations of freedom.

Alshaibi consistently features herself as a primary subject, illustrating how Western geopolitical forces, traditions, and networks undermine individual liberties, particularly those of Middle Eastern women. Carry Over deflects the Western gaze of Orientalist photography in the Middle East and Northern Africa. Using albumen, photogravure, and gum printing processes of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Alshaibi poses in symbolic clothing with objects in Gamer (2019), for instance, she wears a burqa and carries a towering stack of metal tins on her head, tins typically used by Iraqi women to carry buffalo cream and bread.

Alshaibis portraits are taken in a studio environment based on the likes of historic precedents such as Maison Bonfils and Francis Frith who, capitalizing on new photographic technologies, cataloged and codified a European appetite for the Middle East. Except Alshaibis images ultimately rebuke codification. The extravagant proportion of the props combined with the figures isolation underscores the contrived form of the tradition. In Water Bearer II (2019), Alshaibi carries a large vessel resembling a giant hand grenade or acorn. She appears to have extraordinary strength, carrying this blanched, cumbersome, and likely useless object overhead while wearing a white dress that is so long as to fold over her feet and prohibit her movement. The effort depicted is to no end save for producing an image.

Self-portraits in Between Two Rivers capture physical signs of trauma on the body using theater cosmetics. Obverse Discursive (2016) shows a close up of the artists face wearing a fitted hijab, gazing upwards and off to the right, lips sewn shut with golden thread, bloody where it appears to penetrate the skin. In another photo, Arabic and Cuneiform: to read and write (2016), bruised and branded arms extend over crumpled, luxuriously red fabric, hands cupped as though requesting alms from the camera. The arms branded cuneiform marks are bloody, suggesting a traumatic dislocation from language and history as though they had to be inscribed on the body for safekeeping.

In an affiliated artist statement, Alshaibi who had to flee Iraq growing up describes images in Between Two Rivers as a response to the Iraq war. She argues that the concept of womens liberty was leveraged by Western powers to gain support for the invasion. Photos in this series illustrate the adverse effects the conflict had on women in particular.

The strongest work in the show comes from the seven-year multimedia project Silsila for which the artist loosely followed the path of a 14th-century Moroccan traveler, Ibn Battuta. Battuta traveled more than any other explorer in premodern history, the published account of which appears in his book A Gift to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Travelling, otherwise known as The Rihla. Inspired by his path, Alshaibi focused on the extremes of water, particularly the diverse and regional populations of people facing ecological displacement.

The series links those communities, examining how rising tides expected to swallow the Maldives or Hawaiian Islands are reciprocally connected to droughts befalling Middle Eastern and North African deserts. Works exhibited from this series include draped figures, often mirrored in water, and regularly associated with circles.

In Tasma (Listen) (2014), a figure kneels on the ground in a green burqa, hands on her knees in the center of a circle of stones in the middle of a receding desert. The circular composition is repeated in other works like Ma Ijtamaat Aydina ala Qabdih Muattal (What Our Hands Joined Was Broken) (2014) where two rows of identical figures face one another with hands outstretched. Inner pairs shake hands while outer pairs are unable to bridge the distance with human contact. Clouds punctuate the blue sky overhead, reiterating a kaleidoscopic quality. Throughout the series, the mirroring capacity of water collapses the sky and ground.

Each of Alshaibis series highlights how individual agency, particularly that of Middle Eastern and North African women, is subject to geopolitical and economic forces that destroy the environment. The cause of displacement is varied war, climate change and capitalism, colonialism yet they each create inhospitable environments that undermine the liberties each regime paradoxically claims to champion. What is remarkable about figures in Silsila is the movement they nevertheless possess, carrying and wearing billowing fabrics, poised in motion, in dialogue with the changing landscape.

Four Series continues at Zane Bennett Gallery (435 S Guadalupe Street, Santa Fe, New Mexico) through April 16, 2022.

See the original post here:

Freedom in Body and Water - Hyperallergic

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

The United States Ambassador to Poland, Mark Brzezinski, said on Sunday that the country, which has taken in 2.5 million Ukrainian refugees in past three weeks, is committed to Ukraines "freedom and sovereignty."

Speaking to "Fox News Live" from Warsaw, he noted that in that city alone there are 300,000 Ukrainian refugees, which he said accounts for 10% of the citys population.

He stressed that Poland, which has accepted the vast majority of the refugees, is "committed totough sanctions" and "supportingthe Ukrainian people."

Russia's lack of swift victory, international condemnation, and economic sanctions along with devastation and civilian losses across Ukraine have brought both countries to the negotiation table, but fighting including a critical struggle for the city of Mariupol continues.

WIDE RIFT IN RUSSIA, UKRAINE NEGOTIATIONS COULD MEAN DRAWN OUT WAR THAT FAVORS PUTIN: EXPERTS SAY

Russia's army has been repeatedly stalled by Ukraine's military determination and will to save their homeland, resulting in a slowed attack and severe losses for Russia.

Displaced people rest at a makeshift shelter in Mlyny, near the Korczowa border crossing, in Poland, Thursday, March 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Brzezinski said it is uncertain how long the war will last and that "we dont know what [Russian President Vladimir] Putin will donext," but "in the meantime, toughsanctions [and] supporting therefugees is the approachthe Poles, with the support bythe Americans, is taking."

ZELENSKYY ADVISOR SAYS THE WAR COULD BE NEARING AN END IN THE NEXT 2-3 WEEKS: LIVE UPDATES

He acknowledged that "Poland has taken on enormousweight and responsibility" by accepting large number of Ukrainian refugees.

"At this point, I can report toyou that this country has thisin hand, although it needs andwelcomes resources through itslead NGOs [nonprofit organizations] and charities," Brzezinski said, noting that that includes the Polish Red Cross.

"But, quite frankly, it will be acapacity issue," he added. "And the hope for all the peoplewho are coming here is that theycan return to Ukraine.Thats why theyre staying closeto Ukraine in Poland and notgoing further west to Germany,to France, to Spain."

He noted that the Ukrainian refuges prefer to stay in Poland so that "they cango back to their homes quicklyand start rebuilding" when the war is over.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Late last month, President Biden called Putin"a butcher" after he met with displaced Ukrainian mothers and their children in Warsaw, Poland.

Read the rest here:

Poland committed to Ukraines freedom and sovereignty': Ambassador Brzezinski - Fox News

Miranda Lambert will release her eighth solo album, Palomino, on April 29, and after more than 15 years of releasing music, she says she feels the freedom to be the artist she truly wants to be.

This has been exemplified in Lamberts recent releases from her stripped-down, Grammy-nominated album, The Marfa Tapes, to her upbeat, good-time anthem, Drunk (And I Dont Wanna Go Home), with Elle King. Lambert reflected on her career in a recent interview with Rolling Stone, adding that she hopes to inspire other female artists to blaze their own unique trail.

Ive been lucky enough to have a long career where I can have a little freedom creatively, but its still scary, Lambert tells the publication. I want people to accept both and not be like, Well, thats not country! Thats not commercial! These are just songs I love, and it doesnt matter where they fit. I hope thats opened some doors for women, especially, to go, I can put out whatever I want and sound like whatever I want and look like whatever I want. And if I change my mind, thats just what I do.

The place Lambert has landed in her career hasnt come without its hurdles, however. The singer also chatted about the struggles she has endured, remarking that she took every hardship in her stride while focusing on staying in the industry for the long haul.

My goal was longevity, she shares. I wanted to be someone who says something important and does it through music, and can stay a long time. I wanted an Emmylou [Harris] career. Thats what I wanted, even though some of the roads were long, because I didnt pick the right commercial sound or the right outfit or whatever it was at the time that was hot. I didnt have my first No.1 until my third record, and that was OK with me. It was about establishing something.

In addition to readying her Palomino album, Lambert will take her show to Las Vegas in her newly-announced Velvet Rodeo: The Las Vegas Residency. The 24-date residency will kick off on Sept. 23 and run through April of 2023 at Zappos Theater at Planet Hollywood.

Miranda Lambert and husband Brendan McLoughlin walk the red carpet prior to the 2021 Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, on Sunday (March 14). The couple of two-plus years appear on a night that the singer is nominated for multiple awards and set to perform her song "Bluebird."

See the article here:

Miranda Lambert Reflects on the 'Freedom' of Her Long Career - Taste of Country

Great Freedom opens in 1968 with surveillance footage of a mens bathroom in Berlin. The police are looking for gay men to bust and the people on camera look like bugs about to be squashed. Hans Hoffmann (Franz Rogowski) is one of the men observed. Hes then captured and sent to prison for having sex in that bathroom.

Hans violates an infamous law called Paragraph 175 that was written into the German Criminal Code in 1871 and not fully repealed until 1994. It made homosexual acts illegal. And its not the first time Hoffmann has been jailed. When the film jumps back to 1945, hes thrown into prison on the same charge, and this time, the guard who escorts him to his cell is an American soldier serving in the occupation forces after World War II.

And thats not the first time for Hoffmann either. The tattooed letter and numbers on his forearm show that the Nazis had him in Auschwitz. Hans is not only gay, hes Jewish a double whammy. And while the end of the war freed Hans from Auschwitz, hes really just transferred to a different prison. His prison job then is to rip the insignia from Nazi uniforms and make them re-usable. The metaphor is obvious same clothing, just without the decoration.

Sebastian Meises Great Freedom is a prison film, and at times a brutal one. Hans is beaten by guards and thrown into solitary confinement. His cellmate Viktor (Georg Friedrich) also beats him for being gay. Hans has no trouble spotting other Paragraph 175 prisoners, and hes sexually aggressive, which gets him more beatings and more time in solitary. The images of the sex and the beatings are graphic and confrontational, just like Hans himself. One of his fellow prisoners even tells Hans to ease up.

Hans is tough. He weathers the abuse, and the pugnacious expression on his face shows that he will probably never give in.

But the good prison films and writing over the past 2,000 years or so are about the paradox of the brutality faced by the body and the liberation of the mind and spirit. Prison walls are gray and blank. Color feels dead. You yearn for a touch of green, something to break the unrelenting drab hostility of this place.

Concrete and metal encase the prisoners. Of course, there are bars everywhere. The yard where prisoners get to walk around and even talk to each other is inside the prison and surrounded by the harsh prison building itself. And aside from one young and sweet-looking former teacher, also a Paragraph 175 prisoner, the prisoners and the guards look both empty in the eyes and angry. Prison routine sucks the humanity out of everyone.

The surprise in the film is the tenderness that emerges. It doesnt come early and the film seems headed in another direction, maybe attempted escape. But when Hans loses a friend, one guard, for just a moment, looks like he understands. Its a hint that in this soulless place, at least theres a possibility of kindness.

And then one part of Paragraph 175 is repealed, and Hans gets out of prison. Its a grim day. No one meets him at the prison gate; he has no apparent home; he has no belongings. Hes just a forlorn guy standing alone on a dreary street with no sign of sky, or trees or plants. He wanders through a gay bar, like a tourist on a bus taking in the sights.

And thats when he discovers what freedom can be. He doesnt buy himself a good dinner or smell the flowers in the park. But maybe for the first time, he does make a choice and its a free one.

Read more:

'Great Freedom' is a title that is neither ironic or optimistic - KUNC

NBA star Enes Kanter Freedom spoke to Lets Hang Live wherein he said that he already has a wrestling offer in hand.

After being packaged in a deal that included Daniel Theis being grabbed by Boston Celtics, NBA star Enes Kanter Freedom was waived by the Houston Rockets. The NBA star since then has been a free agent since no team has shown interest in him. Not only in the area of NBA, but Enes Kanter Freedom also is active in the arena of wrestling and was already seen in the arena of WWE.

During the year 2019, when the NBA star Enes Kanter Freedom was still associated with Boston Celtics, he made an appearance on the Monday night event of WWE Raw. Enes Kanter Freedom even claimed the title as he defeated then 24/7 Champion R-Truth. The event proved to be iconic. The NBA star Enes Kanter Freedom achieved this feat in front of the New York crowd. The NBA player also revealed a Boston Celtics jersey in the process.

Recently, Enes Kanter Freedom spoke to Lets Hang Live during the SEC championship. He expressed his love for the sport of wrestling. The NBA star also revealed that he already owns an offer of wrestling in hand. Also added that he can make an entry in the rings whenever he wants to. But, the sportsman also said that he is only 29 years old and thus wants to focus on basketball for the next seven years.

Enes Kanter Freedom also said that he is yet to figure out his way into the sport of basketball. It looks like the first love of the NBA star is basketball. The NBA player also added that he will only look towards the other areas of the sporting world once he figures out his career in basketball. Enes Kanter Freedoms love for basketball is so immense that he has said that he will not quit basketball (at least in the near future).

I already have an offer. Just trying to figure out what is going to happen with this basketball thing. Im 29, and I want to play another six or seven years in this league. Im going to figure out my basketball career first and see whats going to happen. I already have an offer, Im just not taking it right now. I love basketball and Im not going to quit basketball, said Enes Kanter Freedom.

Click here to read more on WWE.

Read more here:

"I already have an offer" - NBA star Enes Kanter Freedom says he already has a wrestling offer in hand - The Sportsrush

What does it mean to participate in society? In our neoliberal era, the social and political effects of which are even more starkly apparent in the pandemic, it is not at all clear. In her book Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalisms Stealth Revolution, Wendy Brown has shown how neoliberalism is not just an economic and political system but also a governing rationality unto itself, a sort of common sense. For many in the U.S. and around the world, the very notion of the public good has grown less thinkable. Under these conditions, Brown has recently explained, our freedom rests on being able to do what we want as individuals. On the far right, this libertarian ethic has combined with anti-democratic politics and policies to form what Brown calls authoritarian liberalism.

We find a paradigmatic example of authoritarian liberalism in the contemporary politics of sincerely held religious belief. As I wrote in these pages last year, sincere belief names a distinctly American way of being free and being religious: as an individual, unsystematically, and without regard for others. To remain unvaccinated, or to pack a sanctuary at the height of pre-vaccine infection surges, is a personal freedom. And when it is sincere and religious, it is worth protecting, regardless of who else might be harmed. Further, sincerely held religious beliefs insulate their holder from critique. They offer an opt-out not only from the demands of democratic participation but from the democratic process of deliberation, of giving reasons and making arguments. You can always say, when pushed, Dont question my faith.

And yet I want to suggest that sincerity could offer, perhaps unexpectedly, an ethic worth pursuing. Sincerity could beshould befundamentally social, not antisocial. As the anthropologist Webb Keane explained, when I speak sincerely, I am not only producing words that reveal my interior state but am producing them for you; I am making myself (as an inner self) available for you in the form of external, publicly available expressions. You cannot be sincere by yourself. You have to talk to other people. Today, sincerely held religious beliefs are increasingly deployed in service of the opposite function. Claimantsat least, white conservative Christian claimants whose religious beliefs are recognized as normatively religiousdo not have to do much to explain or defend their beliefs. They just hold them, sincerely. How might our politics look different if sincerity claims were an invitation to dialogue rather than a conversation-stopper? A chance to negotiate a resolution with one another in good faith?

View post:

The Antisocial Strain of Sincere Religious Beliefs Is on the Rise - The New Republic

EXIRA This years Exira Fourth of July Celebration will run from July 1-4, and the theme is Fireworks and Freedom.

Exira Community Club President Abby Rasmussen announced the theme during Saturday nights Exira Fourth of July Kickoff. Along with the announcements, the kickoff event included a meal, live and silent auction and entertainment by the Dueling Pianos with Mike and Andy. Ticket sales were good by Saturday morning there were less than 20 tickets still available.

This will be the 157th annual celebration, starting with a Spartan Golf Tournament and the carnival on Friday, July 1; Saturday, July 2 will be the road race, slow pitch softball tournament, carnival and evening performance of the rodeo; Sunday, July 3 is the community barbecue, carnival, rodeo and street dance and Monday, July 4 is the annual parade, carnival and fireworks. Scotts Amusements will return to provide the carnival.

The other big announcement was who would be this years Parade Grand Marshal.

Rasmussen introduced him, saying he was an Exira graduate who came home to teach, and taught in the Exira schools for almost 40 years. He created lasting memories through the school newspaper and yearbooks, and was cherished by all of his students, even the ones he made sit out in the hallway for misbehaving.

In retirement, she said, he is a man of many hobbies, but also very involved in his community. He has produced books of local history and collected historical photographs, and has taken part in almost every fundraiser and community event the town offered. Hes also busy with his church, playing piano and organ on Sundays and also at the Exira Care Center, and has officiated at weddings of his nieces and nephews, and for the children of his dear friends.

This years Grand Marshal, she said, was loyal to his roots, and a friend to all. He is John Walker.

Email Laura Bacon at lbacon.ant@gmail.com

This story contains original reporting by the News Telegraph staff. If you are not a subscriber, please consider becoming one because local journalism is only possible with your support. A subscription to News Telegraph plays a vital role in making this reporting possible. Thank you for your support and helping us continue to connect our community.

Read the original here:

Fireworks and Freedom is the theme of 157th Exira Fourth of July Celebration - The Audubon County Advocate Journal