Interview with John Lavenburg of Crux on the Protests at Columbia University, April 22, 2024 by Fr. Roger LandryFr. Roger Landry

Fr. Roger J. Landry Interview with Crux’s John Lavenburg April 22, 2024   This interview was conducted by email on April 22, 2024. John Lavenburg’s article appeared on April 24 on Crux.  Crux: What is your reaction to what’s taken place at Columbia University in recent days?  Landry: Concern and sadness over what’s happening. At […]

AG @aghamilton29@bird.makeup (Mastodon)
With Passover approaching, I was going to write a long thing about the lessons learned and how they apply to today. There is an important message about the necessity of Jews, who make up 0.2% of the world's population, to never again rely solely on others for our survival. But I also want to acknowledge the importance of expressing gratitude to those who stand with us. I think we are standing against shared enemies, but that does not mean we can appreciate the allies who speak out any less. The response today to the anti-Semitic mobs we saw yesterday is a perfect example of that. Those who seek to excuse and normalize hate, at least in the United States, are still just a loud minority. They have indeed gained far too much influence in key institutions such as education and the media, but they still do not define our society. So thank you to the non-Jews who spoke up today. We will never forget who stood with us when we were most vulnerable. Or who was ready to throw us and our kids to the wolves.
Serge from Babka (@serge@babka.social)
There's a core problem when designing decentralized networks. You have to make a terrible choice at design time. 1. Either you make a network that is very secure and you protect marginalized people, but you also protect really awful people like pedophiles and human traffickers. OR 2. You don't built it securely and the network by default reflects or even amplifies existing power structures. The Fediverse didn't chose #1, so it ended up with #2, which means that many people won't see the problems. But if you're marginalized because of your ethnicity, your skin color, your country of origin, or a host of other factors, you do. The Fediverse does a decent job for Queer folks, and that's awesome! However the power that Queer folks have on the Fediverse is proportional to its size, and if the network grows then Queer folk may find that their empowerment will start to dissolve, just as its done for other marginalized people on the network, like Jews, and POC. #Fediverse