The Indy Brief: Avoiding Cold War

In May 2021, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted to advance the Strategic Competition Act of 2021, which would introduce measures to increase American competitiveness with regards to China. Ahead of its vote on the Senate floor, 66 organizations co-signed a letter published by the Quincy Institute cautioning against the U.S.’s China foreign policy furthering a Cold War mentality.

These organizations urged legislators to consider how militarization and demonizing China risks violence against Asian Americans and failing to confront the U.S.’s most pressing challenges.

Read their full letter on The Edge.

This image was recently shared on a public Facebook page called Wonder of Nature. It was highlighted and captioned as “♥The power of water. The most beautiful photo you’ll see today♥.”

Unfortunately, as Ashley Bohn writes, for many decades the mainstream media has portrayed people with disabilities who use wheelchairs and walkers as sick, elderly, impoverished, and a burden. People with physical disabilities are regarded as enfeebled noncontributors who need to be taken care of.

But far from being something that holds people with disabilities back, mobility aides mean independence, access, and inclusion.

Read Bohn’s full commentary on The Edge.

On September 21, PCIM and the Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival hosted a launch for Claire Gleitman’s new book, “Anxious Masculinity in the Drama of Arthur Miller and Beyond: Salesmen, Sluggers, and Big Daddies.”

Chris Holmes, associate professor and chair of the Department of Literatures in English, gave an analytical introduction to Gleitman’s book at the start of the evening, highlighting the urgency with which she relates the past century’s drama to still-emerging issues.

Holmes said, “Claire asked the most poignant question in the book: Are we able to learn from the ugliness, vulgarity, and violence of our national history? Or will we remain unwilling to see the world from another’s eyes to understand that not all dances are danced for our enjoyment?”

Read Holmes’ full introduction to the book here.

Watch the launch of Gleitman’s “Anxious Masculinity”

On October 11, Project Censored Director Mickey Huff joined Raza Rumi’s independent media class to discuss the growth of Project Censored and the outlet’s work to highlight stories obscured in mainstream journalism.

“We try to bring to light these great independent news sources,” said Huff, by “people that do bona fide grassroots investigative reporting on key issues that matter that just don’t seem to see the light of day into the corporate media.”

Huff’s spoke on censorship and propaganda, saying, “We think censorship is anything that interferes with the free flow of information in a society that purports to have free press principles, as protected under the first amendment.”

Watch Huff’s full talk here.

Publisher of The Progressive Magazine Norman Stockwell spoke in Raza Rumi’s class as well, illustrating the history of the magazine and offering perspectives on shifts in news media across platforms of print, radio, and the internet.

“In our history, the areas that we have focused on is the influence of money in electoral politics … having more direct democracy, more people involved in the decision-making process. … Another thing this magazine has always stood for is opposition to war and militarism during World War One.”

Watch Stockwell’s full talk here.

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