Interview by Blake Plante (PO ‘19), D.C. Correspondent & Digital Content Writer Jon Parrish Peede is the current Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). This interview was conducted the week after his confirmation by the Senate. Peede’s previous positions include Publisher of the Virginia Quarterly Review 2011-2016, senior leadership roles in the National Endowment for...
By Blake Plante (PO ’18) “Every year the leaves bury memory of these juvenile graves – the crackling umbers and rusts muting to umbrage what otherwise should be rage.” Kyle Dargan’s poem “Natural Causes” is a response to the rate of juvenile homicide in Virginia. In the poem, youth purchase firearms from a farmer who “keeps his gaze down so as to remember nothing of [their] face[s].”...
By Blake Plante (PO ’18) “Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) are the new frontier in school choice”, says Nat Malkus as he introduces Jeb Bush at the American Enterprise Institute on Friday, January 26th. General disillusionment with the American K-12 system (according to Gallup’s most recent poll, dissatisfaction with nationwide K-12 schools is at 53%) is manifesting itself in growing...
By Blake Plante (PO ’18) On January 23, 2017 the Trump administration reinstated and amplified a policy that has been implemented by every Republican president since Reagan. It is called the Mexico City Policy. Critics call it the global gag rule. The policy cuts off U.S. government aid to health agencies which offer or mention family-planning abortion services. The Reagan administration...
Blake Plante (PO ‘18) In March 2016, an artificial intelligence named Sophia—now a citizen of Saudi Arabia—was jokingly asked “do you want to destroy humans?” She responded, “Ok. I will destroy humans.” This does not mean that Sophia has an agenda to exterminate humanity; rather, it is indicative that Sophia is not aware of what she is saying. Sophia does not have consciousness, though her...
Interview by Blake Plante (PO ‘18), Blog Writer Transcribed by Jessie Levin (PO ‘18), Staff Writer, and Blake Plante (PO ’18), Continued from Part 1… CJLPP: On the one hand, Phil is saying that the 200-million-dollar bond sets a good precedence—that once we have that, there will probably be more future funding. And Melissa, you’re saying that it will create this feel-good impression that...
Interview by Blake Plante (PO ‘18), Blog Writer Transcribed by Jessie Levin (PO ‘18), Staff Writer, and Blake Plante (PO ’18), Blog Writer Malissa McKeith is a veteran environmental attorney and a partner and chair emerita of the Los Angeles-based legal firm, Lewis Brisbois. She is co-founder and president of Citizens United for Resources and the Environment, Inc. (CURE), which is a grassroots...
By Blake Plante (PO ’19) “Thus do I counsel you, my friends: Mistrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful.” —Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra Nietzsche writes that infliction of punishment unleashes a “festival of cruelty” which reaches its most jubilant form when organized by the state; that the pleasure in punishing must not be forgotten because it is its own warning...
By Blake Plante (PO ’19) On Sunday October 22, the four Democratic candidates for the California gubernatorial race met in front of the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) for a substantive debate that explored single-payer/universal health care plans, the opioid crisis, mental health policy, right to work laws, sanctuary cities, how to gain bipartisan support, and aging in the American...
By Blake Plante (PO ’19) When reactionary sanctions are the international community’s only major response to North Korea’s dash for nuclearized ICBMs, it becomes essential to evaluate the possible results of sanctions on North Korea: is it likely that sanctions will prevent Pyongyang from developing nuclear warheads? What comes next if sanctions fail? How should North Korea be engaged with...
