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Boston Globe
a day ago
- Politics
- Boston Globe
250 years ago, religion played a pivotal role in the American Revolution. Today, clergy are resuming the fight
'All of us are deeply concerned about the preservation of democracy, because without democracy, faith cannot flourish,' said Reverend Fred Small, a community minister at Arlington Street Church in Boston. 'Christian nationalism is not a future that any of us embrace, although there are many — the majority of us — are Christians.' The group was specifically protesting the Trump administration's Advertisement Among all Christians, 51 percent disapproved of Trump's job as president in an April Advertisement The march drew inspiration from religious leaders' prominent involvement in the American Revolution and the Civil Rights movement, Lerner said. Specifically, the group called for legislative protections for vulnerable communities as the Trump administration intensifies its 'In our country, having people taken off the streets and no opportunity to defend themselves — that is not an America we have been working on for thousands of years,' Lerner said. In the American Revolution, parishioners across religious sects used scripture to 'Clergymen were using their churches to talk about how this struggle against Britain was not just a political battle over taxes and tariffs,' Lerner said. 'It was one they saw through a moral lens, a religious lens, a spiritual lens.' Churches in the South also played a Clergy drew On Friday, the group of clergy stopped several times along the 12-mile route, drawing more than 300 people throughout its march, said Rabbi David Lerner, senior rabbi at Temple Emunah. Some joined for a few miles while others committed to the long walk. Advertisement While resting in Cambridge, Small, who walked all 12-miles, said he was feeling the exhaustion. He has arthritis in one knee and was wearing a knee race under his black clerical suit. 'It is a trivial sacrifice that I'm making compared to people who are presently incarcerated in an ICE facility, or worse yet, a Gulag in El Salvador,' he said. Speakers at the march cited scripture in their speeches and said Trump's actions are antithetical to their religions. Small held a sign reading reading 'Welcome the stranger,' referencing Matthew 25:35. 'The reason we have separation of church and state is not that they should live in separate spheres, but we can do our thing — worship, have integrity — and have a moral voice and stand up for justice,' said Willie Barnett, a pastor at Great Road Church in Acton. Barnett said his participation in the march doesn't indicate partisanship, but having 'a moral voice for liberty.' Small said it was important to him to not only confine his religion to a place of worship but practice it in the world. 'Universally, all faith traditions call for justice — visiting the prisoner, comforting and uplifting those who are suffering,' he said. 'The current administration seems to preach and live a gospel of cruelty.' As the group walked toward the Longfellow Bridge to enter Boston, cars honked and people rolled down their windows, cheering. As the group approached Boston Common, rain started to drizzle. It gave way to the sun as about 100 people gathered in front of the Embrace statue, praying and listening to speeches. Advertisement Mariama White Hammond, the founding pastor of New Roots AME Church in Dorchester and former chief of energy, environment, and open space under Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, led the protesters in several songs. Barnett said the walk was encouraging. 'A lot of us as ministers right now can be discouraged about the state of the world and also what it means to lead our congregations in these times,' he said. 'There's a great community coming together, sharing experiences as we walk, and finding hope.' Emily Spatz can be reached at
New York Times
2 days ago
- General
- New York Times
Under Trump, a Native American Mascot Debate Is Turned Upside Down
A New York school district was mired in a pitched battle over its Native American mascot. The school board in Lancaster, a small district near Buffalo, had voted to banish its 'Redskins' imagery and nickname. But parents protested that the mascot was a source of pride. Teachers arrived to class sporting outfits with the logo. And students regularly ran into reminders of the old mascot in classrooms, gyms and locker rooms. The year was 2015. The school district was accused of violating students' civil rights when it persisted in showcasing the mascot, and the U.S. Education Department opened an investigation. The imbroglio eventually ended with an accord between the district and the federal government to halt the use of the mascot. A decade since the battle began in Lancaster, the elimination of Native American mascots from public schools has re-emerged as a contentious political issue, and New York again finds itself at the center of a firestorm. The state has required districts to abandon mascots that appropriate Native culture, or risk losing funding. But this time, the federal government's stance is very different. The Education Department recently began a civil rights investigation into the state's mandate to banish certain mascots after the Massapequa district on Long Island refused to forgo its decades-old 'Chief' mascot, a Native American man wearing a feathered headdress. On Friday, the federal education secretary, Linda McMahon, is expected to visit the district to announce whether by restricting the use of Native mascots, the state violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits recipients of federal funds from engaging in discriminatory behavior based on race, color or national origin. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
How the Backlash to the George Floyd Protests Set the Stage for Another Trump Administration
Stay up-to-date with the politics team. Sign up for the Teen Vogue Take I'm an attorney, a political commentator, and an immigrant who came to America as an international student in 2008, when I was just 14 years old. In Trump's America, all of these basic facts about my identity fill me with dread. This year, since assuming office on January 20, President Donald Trump has set about attempting to rapidly dismantle our democracy through an endless stream of executive orders, policy decisions, and blatantly unconstitutional actions and announcements. His strategy to 'flood the zone' is meant to ensure we're too overwhelmed by information to resist, challenge, or even address it all — and it is frighteningly effective. Trump has already completed many of the proposals laid out in Project 2025, the right-wing road map for his administration. Among many other things, Trump has pardoned or commuted the sentences of all January 6 insurrectionists; thrown the economy into turmoil with ridiculous tariffs; weaponized Civil Rights era legislation to go after colleges and institutions with policies, scholarships, curricula, or events designed to advance diversity; terminated thousands of workers across the federal government; moved to revoke the legal status of 532,000 Cuban, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans, and Haitian immigrants; dispatched Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers to college campuses to target and effectively kidnap international students over their political speech; detained and deported documented and undocumented immigrants, as well as US citizens, without due process; sent immigrants to Guantánamo Bay; signed an executive order ending the constitutional right to birthright citizenship, which has gone before the Supreme Court; threatened and intimidated law firms and judges who do anything he doesn't like; ignored Supreme Court orders to return wrongfully deported people; and posted the private address of the family of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, who was wrongfully deported to a Salvadoran mega-prison. Trump has made clear that he has no regard for the Constitution or its checks and balances, and that those who challenge him can be arrested or deported. Fascism is not on the rise, it's here — and I'm angry about it. But there's a James Baldwin quote I've been quietly repeating to myself over and over since Inauguration Day: 'You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read.' Five years ago Americans watched in horror as Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on George Floyd's neck for nine minutes as he pleaded for his life, cried out for his mother, and took his last breath. Police killed at least 1,159 people in 2020, but the murder of George Floyd resulted in what became arguably the largest civil rights movement in American history. In the summer of 2020, amid a deadly pandemic, tens of millions of us took to the streets in more than 550 places nationwide to protest not just the murder of George Floyd, but police brutality, inflated police budgets, the prison industrial complex, the police state, and the criminal justice system at large. Some people romanticize the 2020 protests and Chauvin's conviction for what they believe they represent: proof of a turning point in American history; of Americans finally calling for the dismantling of an oppressive institution. They focus on our collective action and what they believe it accomplished, not the state's response to it. When I think about the 2020 protests, however, I don't just think about George Floyd or the conviction of Chauvin; I think about the killings of Breonna Taylor, Dreasjohn Reed, Ma'Khia Bryant, and Ahmaud Arbery. I make sure that I think about the many protesters who received excessive charges for exercising their rights. I think about protesters being teargassed and beaten with police batons. I think about the people killed by police at the protests against police brutality, like David McAtee. I think about Kyle Rittenhouse shooting protesters and being turned into a celebrity. It's important to reflect, not just on our collective actions, but the state's violent response to them — the consequences and the backlash that always follow. Our collective actions are part of an ongoing struggle and resistance, not a final resting place. There will always be a response. The powers that be won't simply acquiesce to our requests without a fight, no matter how many of us protest. But so many of the people protesting for the first time in 2020 didn't know that. So, in 2021, when we saw police budgets increase and people like 'tough-on-crime' former New York Police Department officer Eric Adams get elected city mayor, they perceived these as fatal blows to the movement, proof that we were failing. I wasn't discouraged, though, because I remembered 2014's Ferguson protests, after 18-year-old Mike Brown was killed by police. I remembered the backlash, the sheer number of activists who were overcharged, imprisoned, or mysteriously died. I expected the backlash to 2020, and I wasn't discouraged about our potential to overcome it because I've seen it before. I know how we resist — or, at least, that we can resist. So, when I see Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, Rumeysa Ozturk, and Mahmoud Khalil get taken by ICE without due process — although I'm heartbroken and terrified about what's happening and what's to come — I have to remind myself of that Baldwin quote. It tells me that we've been here before, that we are familiar with the America Donald Trump wants us to live in, and the tools he wants to use to oppress us. Trump has only ever promised to move America backwards. 'Make America Great Again' has always meant returning to the past. It's a past where white men dominated; where the rights of women and people of color were restricted; where immigrants and LGBTQ+ people were villainized; and police were encouraged to take up arms against civilians. Trump and his fellow Americans are trying to take us back to the worst of where we've already been. That's why knowing our history is more important now than ever before. Learning about the power and collective resistance of Black communities, of queer people, of labor organizers, and of immigrants provides us with a road map forward. Trump isn't creating a fascist new world, he's revitalizing a fascist old one that we have fought before — and that's as terrifying as it is familiar. Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue More great activism coverage from Teen Vogue: 'Young Activist' Label Can Be a Burden for Youth Organizers Economic Disobedience: What Is It and How Does It Work? The Jewish Teens Who Fought Back Against Hitler The 13 Best Protest Songs Of All Time
NDTV
3 days ago
- Politics
- NDTV
Harvard To Hold Graduation Ceremony In Shadow Of Trump 'Retribution'
Washington: Harvard is due to hold its annual graduation ceremony Thursday as a federal judge considers the legality of punitive measures taken against the university by President Donald Trump that threaten to overshadow festivities. Thursday's commencement comes as Trump piles unprecedented pressure on Harvard, seeking to ban it from having foreign students, shredding its contracts with the federal government, slashing its multi-billion dollar grants, and challenging its tax-free status. Harvard is challenging all of the measures in court. The Ivy League institution has continually drawn Trump's ire while publicly rejecting his administration's repeated demands to give up control of recruitment, curricula and research choices. The government claims Harvard tolerates anti-Semitism and liberal bias. "Harvard is treating our country with great disrespect, and all they're doing is getting in deeper and deeper," Trump said Wednesday. Harvard president Alan Garber, who told National Public Radio Tuesday that "sometimes they don't like what we represent," may speak to address the ceremony. Garber has acknowledged that Harvard does have issues with anti-Semitism, and has struggled to ensure that a variety of viewpoints can be safely heard on campus. "What is perplexing is the measures that they have taken to address these (issues) don't even hit the same people that they believe are causing the problems," Garber told NPR. Basketball star and human rights campaigner Kareem Abdul-Jabbar addressed the class of 2025 for Class Day on Wednesday. "When a tyrannical administration tried to bully and threaten Harvard to give up their academic freedom and destroy free speech, Dr. Alan Garber rejected the illegal and immoral pressures the way Rosa Parks declined--" he said to applause. Civil rights icon Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama sparking a boycott that ultimately led to the desegregation of services, spurring on the Civil Rights movement in what is widely seen as a watershed moment. Madeleine Riskin-Kutz, 22, a Franco-American classics and linguistics student at Harvard said some students were planning individual acts of protest against the Trump policies. "The atmosphere (is) that just continuing on joyfully with the processions and the fanfare is in itself an act of resistance," she said. Legal fightback Garber has led the fight-back in US academia after Trump targeted several prestigious universities including Columbia which made sweeping concessions to the administration in an effort to restore $400 million of withdrawn federal grants. A federal judge in Boston will on Thursday hear arguments over Trump's effort to exclude Harvard from the main system for sponsoring and hosting foreign students. Judge Allison Burroughs quickly paused the policy which would have ended Harvard's ability to bring students from abroad who currently make up 27 percent of its student body. Retired immigration judge Patricia Sheppard protested outside Harvard Yard Wednesday, sporting a black judicial robe and brandishing a sign reading "for the rule of law." "We have to look at why some of these actions have been filed, and it does not seem to me seemly that a president would engage in certain actions as retribution," she told AFP. Ahead of the ceremony, members of the Harvard band sporting distinctive crimson blazers and brandishing their instruments filed through the narrow streets of Cambridge, Massachusetts that is home to America's oldest university ahead of the graduation ceremony. A huge stage had been erected and hundreds of chairs laid out in a grassy precinct that was closed off to the public for the occasion. Students braved sunny conditions to wear black academic gowns, touring through Cambridge with photo-taking family members, AFP correspondents saw.
South Wales Guardian
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- South Wales Guardian
New George Smiley novel will not be glamorous like Bond, says Nick Harkaway
The 52-year-old, from Cornwall, is the son of John le Carre, who died in 2020 aged 89, and wrote the original spy series about an intelligence officer who works for The Circus, Britain's overseas intelligence agency. Harkaway, whose real name is Nicholas Cornwell, published his first continuation novel, Karla's Choice, last year. Speaking to the PA news agency, he said: 'Last time I was kind of deliberately unaware of how much pressure there actually was. 'I sort of sat down (to write) and didn't really think about it. And then, after I finished, and as the reviews started to come out and they were positive, I got retrospective terror. 'I realised… and particularly when you read the reviews, what you realise is that all of them begin with 'I really expected to hate this book, and I don't'. And I thought 'Gosh, that would have been really awful'.' He continued: 'There's a lot of reasons why it shouldn't work… So I think everybody had sort of legitimate fear, and I have great respect for that.' In the new novel, The Taper Man, George Smiley is sent, for the first time, on an operation to America to pursue an old communist network across the West Coast. 'We have Smiley going to America, to the United States, for the first time, into the kind of culmination of the Civil Rights decade,' said Harkaway. 'It's a period of massive, massive, tumultuous change, and not all of it peaceful, you know – there's some quite extraordinary acts of domestic terrorism in the early '60s, around desegregation. 'It's a deep dive, and I'm kind of daunted by it, but you do these things with respect, and you feel your way, and you learn,' he said. A post shared by The Spy Who Came In From The Cold (@spyonstage) The novel is set in 1965, 18 months after Karla's Choice, and amid the backdrop of the Vietnam War as well as the Civil Rights era. 'I'm not just writing to the 1960s, I'm also writing to the world of George Smiley and he's not the guy who shows up at a Beatles concert,' said Harkaway. 'We're not going to see the kind of glamorous '60s that you see in a James Bond film from the period; we're going to be looking at, always, the shadows and the grey spaces and the places where things have potential to go seriously wrong. 'And looking for somebody who can potentially make them go right, and will that person be heard? It's always about ambiguity, rather than the kind of acid orange of the '60s.' It has also been announced that Harkaway's father's global best-selling thriller, The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, is to be staged in London's West End for the first time in November. Harkaway told PA: 'I am excited about that… I have seen the play. I saw it at Chichester, and it runs on rails towards the kind of inevitable, staggering conclusion of the story… It's incredibly powerful.' Le Carre, whose real name was David Cornwell, wrote best-selling novels including Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and The Night Manager. Prior to his career as a writer, he worked in British intelligence throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Career intelligence officer Smiley became the author's best-known character and was made even more famous by Alec Guinness in the TV series of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy which aired in the late 1970s. Film versions of Le Carre's novels include 2001's The Tailor Of Panama, starring Pierce Brosnan, Geoffrey Rush and Jamie Lee Curtis; 2005's The Constant Gardener, starring Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz; and 2011's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, starring Gary Oldman, Colin Firth and Tom Hardy. Harkaway has written novels including The Gone-Away World, Angelmaker, Tigerman, Gnomon and The Price You Pay (as Aidan Truhen). – The Spy Who Came in From the Cold will play at Soho Place from November 17 2025 until February 21 2026.
