Browsing: Opinions

      As you read the title, anyone with a sharp eye for spelling or a love of language is probably scratching their head and asking, “What the devil is ‘Orteganization’?” No need to Google it or dust off your old Webster’s, if you still have one. It’s a term I coined to describe the creeping autocratic tint the United States seems to be adopting, one day, one law, one norm at a time, echoing the playbook of Nicaraguan strongman Daniel Ortega.

     As Donald Trump tries to dodge accountability again—this time for his ties to Jeffrey Epstein—let’s not forget what’s really going on: powerful men shielding one another from the consequences of their predatory, often criminal, behavior.

     The indications, then and since, that the development of nuclear weapons did not bode well for human survival, were clear enough. The two small atomic bombs dropped on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed between 110,000 and 210,000 people and wounded many others, almost all of them civilians. In subsequent years, hundreds of thousands more people around the world lost their lives thanks to the radioactive fallout from nuclear weapons testing, while substantial numbers also died from the mining of uranium for the building of nuclear weapons.

    Many scholars and progressives are reluctant to call Israel’s actions in Gaza genocide. They will agree that Israel’s behavior is abominable and atrocious but nevertheless falls below the threshold of a genocide. Their reasoning may step from partiality toward Israel no matter what it does, from the belief that Hamas’ brutal October 2023 attack must also count as genocide, or from a conception of genocide that must match the numbers of dead in the Holocaust gas chambers. But while the 1948 Geneva Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide resulted directly from the Holocaust, genocide in international law is defined by several other acts besides the extinction of an entire population. Here is how Article II of the Convention defines “genocide”:

   This title is meant to awaken Americans to a sinister, well-orchestrated effort to dismantle Democracy—an effort driven not by divinity, but by greed, racism, and lust for power. The word immaculate suggests that the plotters think they have devised the perfect plan to take advantage of a divided nation.

        For decades, I’ve returned to Truro, Massachusetts, drawn by some of the most breathtaking vistas on Cape Cod. I never tire of biking through the dunes, hiking the sandy bluffs of the National Seashore, or watching the sun rise over the tidal flats.

       As the sun sets on another vibrant summer in Fort Lauderdale, the shimmering waters of our pools and beaches begin to quiet. But for student athletes across the city, the end of summer should not mean the end of swimming. In fact, it’s the perfect time to dive in with renewed purpose. Cross-training in swimming isn’t just a smart move for athletic performance, it’s a life-saving decision that directly impacts the health, confidence, and survival of our youth.

       I’ve been pondering past decisions I’ve made in this life of mine – decisions of enormous impact, decisions that created my future, essentially out of the blue. Forty-nine years ago, for instance, I moved from rural, southwest Michigan to . . . ta da . . . Chicago. I’d been a back-to-the-lander for the previous four years, having transformed with many of my fellow boomers from antiwar activist and hippie to planet-saving environmentalist. I was also married, but that marriage – numero uno – fell apart and I found myself, in my late 20s, with my entire future in my hands. I loved gardening. I’d been raising barred-rock chickens. Every spring we made maple syrup. On and on. Love the planet, man.

       The photos of skeletal children haunt me. At night when I close my eyes. At dawn when I rise. They should haunt us all – along with the unfathomable suffering the families of Gaza have endured over nearly two years of relentless bombings, forced relocation, war crimes, destruction of hospitals, targeting of doctors, ambulance drivers, and reporters.

       Despite real restrictions, Iranian women are far from powerless. In fact, they are among the most educated in the region, and in many cases, more educated than Iranian men. According to UNESCO and World Bank data, Iranian women have made up over 60 percent of university students in recent years, with female enrollment peaking at 70–75 percent in the early 2010s. Today, women account for the majority of graduates in medicine, engineering, and other STEM fields, and female youth literacy exceeds 98 percent. These are not signs of a population waiting to be saved, they are signs of a society where women, despite legal and cultural restrictions, have carved out powerful spaces for agency, knowledge, and resistance. Iranian women have been at the forefront of political protests, student movements, and intellectual life for decades. They do not need Western armies to “liberate” them. What they need is global solidarity that respects their voice and autonomy, not airstrikes framed as feminist interventions.