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CAMPUS NEWS | CITED IN THE NEWS
The Power of Story
Strained Relations
“Mr. Abe’s victory is good for America,” said Andrew Oros, director of international studies at Washington College in Maryland, citing continued stability in the management of the Japan-U.S. alliance and a good rapport between the two leaders. Trump “visiting his probably best friend in the world stage right after a major victory of Mr. Abe gives President Trump a strong partner in Asia,” Oros said. But with Abe’s dominant Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner Komeito retaining a two-thirds majority in the House of Representatives, Abe appears set to push forward his proposal to add a reference to the Self-Defense Forces in the Constitution’s war-renouncing Article 9 despite Komeito’s reluctance and more than half the Japanese people opposing constitutional change under Abe’s leadership. . . “There is a danger that a focus on constitutional change would create worsening relations between Japan and South Korea, which is another U.S. ally, and between Japan and China, at a time when all of these countries are trying to work together to address the North Korea nuclear threat,” Oros said.
A Call to Civic Action
“Part of his inspiration in writing A Christmas Carol in 1843 was to solve some of the real financial difficulties he was facing in the moment. And, his primary goal was to really bring attention to the plight of the poor. This is the ‘Hungry ’40s.’ I think as Americans we’re most familiar with the potato famine that killed over a million people in Ireland, but food scarcity was a pressing problem in England as well, and people were quite literally starving. So, Dickens knew that he wanted to bring attention to the plight of these people, and initially he thought he wanted to write a political pamphlet. He thought he would call it, “An Appeal to the People of England on Behalf of the Poor Man’s Child.” But as the months went by in 1843 he changed the genre of his piece and he decided that really writing a story would be the strongest way of touching people’s hearts. And he described this as a ‘sledgehammer that would come down with 20 times, no 20,000 times the force’ of the original political pamphlet.’’
“As you know, the theme of this event is to get involved and unite. And get involved is a big deal. It’s one thing to sit back and talk about whatever your beliefs are, but what matters most is to get involved. Take your principles and put them into action. It’s not what people say, it’s what they do. On this particular day, we need to remind ourselves to rededicate ourselves to the fact that we are all here together, all of us need help, all of us need kindness that goes with providing human support in every possible way we can. Whether it is with children or adults, an act of kindness will make a huge amount of difference.” Washington College President Kurt Landgraf, quoted at the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Breakfast in January. http://bit.ly/MLKLandgraf
Katie Charles, Assistant Professor of 18th- and 19th-Century Literature, interviewed by Tom Hall on WYPR’s Midday Program http://bit.ly/KatieCharlesWYPR
No Compromise on Extending Slavery
“In February 1861, a group of northern and southern leaders met at the Willard Hotel in Washington to revive many of the essential pieces of the Crittenden plan. That failed too, largely for the same reasons as the original effort. “The Republicans were dead-set against expansion, and the slave-owning states saw it as the key to survival. “‘The pro-slavery states were correct that the election of Lincoln and Republican control of Congress could set in motion a long-term series of events that could end slavery,’ Striner said. ‘If every new state was non-slave owning, then it was just a matter of time before they would have the votes to ban it everywhere.’’’
Andrew Oros, Professor of Political Science and International Studies, quoted in The Kyodo News
Richard Striner, Professor of History and author of Father Abraham: Lincoln’s Relentless Struggle to End Slavery, and Lincoln and Race, quoted in Politifact.
http://bit.ly/KyodoNewsOros
http://bit.ly/PolitifactStriner
SPRING 2018
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