Today at 11:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. (PDT), I will have the pleasure of speaking as the Constitution Day speaker for Santa Monica College. It will be on a crisis of constitutional faith in our country, particularly in the abandonment of free speech principles. The moderator for the event, which will be shown by Zoom, is Professor Hari Vishwanadha.
Santa Monica College serves over 30,000 students in more than 90 fields of study. That is a remarkable size given that it started in 1929 with 7 faculty members and 153 students in classes held on the second floor of Santa Monica High School.
As a sports fan, I note that the college has one of the most unique mascots: Pico the Corsair. The school is located on Pico Boulevard. Pico is often shown on his ship The Lady Sixteen with his pet Pearl the Parrot while carrying his Sword of Silberkraus. I plan to wear a suit for the speech however.
The event is sponsored by the Associated Students of Santa Monica College, with support from the SMC Civic Engagement Committee.
For more information, please call (310) 434-4003.
Jonathan turkey. You say Linear A has been translated. I believed you at first then I looked at the date, 1st April. I am British and proud that Michael Ventris translated ‘B’ and John Chadwick was a Consultant for Michael Ventris. John Chadwick is dead now and so the young man Michael Ventris so I would like you to tell everyone that ‘A’ Has Not Been Translated.
Jonathan: You say your speech at Santa Monica College addressed the “crisis of constitutional faith in our country”. Perhaps you should have used the opportunity to talk about how presidents, both Democratic and Republican, have ignored constitutional restraints when engaging in foreign wars. Congress is rarely consulted–or presidents have lied to get us into war (see Iraq) or conducted wars secretly. In Afghanistan the justification for the war was satisfied after the Taliban were overthrown and Osama bin Laden fled to Pakistan. But the US continued to occupy the country for 20 years on a fool’s errand. Even Trump recognized the futility of the Afghanistan misadventure and Biden has completed the messy withdrawal.
In a final case of mistaken identity a US drone struck and killed a family of 10 on 8/29 in Kabul. After the strike the Pentagon claimed it was a “righteous kill” to take out an ISIS planned bomb attack. No doubt the Pentagon would still be defending the drone strike except for one problem. The NY Times conducted an on site investigation and exposed the lie. The Pentagon now has been forced to admit the strike was in error. Innocent humanitarian aid workers were killed along with family members. Biden is to be rightly criticized for this final unnecessary act that ended the war. But don’t recall you criticizing Trump for doing the same thing. Under Trump US air strikes increased dramatically in Afghanistan. In 2019 alone air strikes killed 700 civilians. Now you would think Biden learned a valuable lesson form the botched drone strike in Kabul. Never believe the Pentagon when it says it has identified an ISIS target with “near certainty”. Nope, you would be wrong. Biden says the US will continue to conduct drone strikes inside Afghanistan from “over the horizon”–no doubt killing more civilians. No wonder Afghans welcomed the Taliban back. They feared US air strikes more than those who once ruled the country. So if we want to restore “constitutional faith” we should begin by demanding accountability from whoever is President. Congress should not be largely silent when it comes war!
I’m sure that in Santa Monica there must be more than a few fellow travelers that would make the point that “Pico the Corsair” is a racist name, given that Pico was the last governor of California under Mexican rule. But I shouldn’t give them any ideas, should I. Good luck Professor Turley. Hope no one tries to disrupt your speech.
California here I come!
Right back where I started from!
A Santa. A Mona. A corpus. A Cristy
Killjoy! At least, a tasteful eyepatch seems de rigueur given the venue…