From Our Substack
July 13, 2024 Rally in Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square. (Photo courtesy of Bion Bartning)
A Message from Bion Bartning, Co-Founder and Board Chair
On Saturday night my wife and I were in Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square with over 10,000 Israelis at a rally in support of the 120 men, women, and children still being held by Hamas terrorists in Gaza. We heard from several of the former hostages, and from family members of those still being held.
The crowd fell silent when 27-year-old Andrey Kozlov spoke, a Russian-speaking Israeli who was rescued by the Israeli Defense Forces on June 8. We stood listening, overcome with emotion, feeling a mixture of hope, determination, and profound sadness for the terrible injustice and hardship these families are going through.
To wake up the following morning to the news that someone had tried to kill former President Trump crystallized a thought that had been forming in my mind…
From Our Advisors
What Emily Post and Daniel of Beccles Can Teach Us About Civility Today
Post and Beccles both wrote about etiquette and argued that civility is a timeless necessity for human flourishing. For TIME Magazine online, Prohuman Foundation advisor Alexandra Hudson shows how their teachings remain relevant today.
Civility, the art of human flourishing, is the basic respect and consideration that we are owed, and owe to other members of the human community. It is the habitual self-sacrifice necessary to peaceably co-exist with others across difference. It’s the process of overcoming the self-love endemic to our nature so that the social aspects of who we are can flourish. It enables us to not merely survive as a species, but thrive.
Meet the Americans Trying to Lower the Temperature in Politics
Aaron Zitner in the Wall Street Journal profiles Prohuman Foundation advisor Adam (Wilk) Wilkinson and the efforts of our Braver Network partner Braver Angels.
By the time he was approached by local Braver Angels leaders, Wilkinson had come to doubt that he was doing much good as a keyboard warrior. Now, he is a participant and coach with the group, joining in its red-blue debates and workshops while helping to lead a program that brings together working-class Americans. “They’re often spoken of but seldom spoken with,” he said.
The Three C’s—Covid, Cancellation and Cancer
Prohuman Foundation advisor Rosie Kay shares a personal recollection of her journey back to the dance studio after battling breast cancer. It's a touching expression of gratitude, optimism, and grit—all core prohuman values. Her 2025 tour will include her solo piece, "Adult Female Dancer," reflecting resilience and recovery.
A cancellation attempted or successful is similar to a bereavement. The internal framework of your entire life collapses and collapses quickly and totally. The death of my father felt like a wall of my life had collapsed and I wasn’t sure what else that wall was holding up. When I lost my company, I discovered that the other walls around me collapsed too.
Also from Rosie Kay: Freedom In The Arts (FITA) publishes “Arts Manifesto”
FITA’s manifesto identifies a crisis in the arts, because a culture of censure and intolerance has taken root. Artists are being canceled and careers collapsing. Many artists self-censor to avoid opprobrium and harassment. Institutions have lost confidence and are failing to protect artistic freedom.
FITA’s manifesto presents three themes for the next Government; To protect artistic freedom, to restore artistic excellence as the guiding principle in the arts, and to ensure the arts funding system centres a healthy arts scene over instrumentalism.
WATCH: Seth Kaplan discusses Fragile Neighborhoods
Prohuman Foundation advisor Seth Kaplan shares powerful ideas about how to identify and fix the causes of fragile states and neighborhoods, rather than just the symptoms, with Fenella Phoebe.
We discuss [Kaplan’s] latest book, Fragile Neighborhoods, and why American and western society is experiencing a crisis of disconnection, how relationships are the foundation for social cohesion and what can be done to fix social disconnection. We discuss what is needed to build a thriving community and some of the steps that we can all take to build bonds and live in a connected neighbourhood.
What to Us Now Is the Fourth of July?
For Free Black Thought, Prohuman Foundation advisor Jake Mackey ties America’s founding ideals to the movement for abolition.
"It is not slavery, which has existed practically everywhere, but American ideals and the American legacy of anti-slavery that make America unique. These ideals and this legacy are our birthright. They are what we celebrate on the Fourth of July."
From the Web
How America’s founding ideals are still at work
Stand Together shares a veteran’s reflections on his family’s military service and emphasis on the principles of equality, freedom, and liberty.
It can be easy to imagine the founding principles of the United States — equal rights, liberty, freedom — as lofty ideals lying forgotten in a historical document. Duerstine thinks differently. For him, these principles are alive, active, and crucial to pursuing equality and opportunity for everyone. In America, we can pursue the lives we want for ourselves and others. It sets us apart from many countries where people have few opportunities to change their economic or social standing.
America continues to be one of the best places to pursue change and impact — and to realize our full human potential as we help each other. Duerstine sees this in his opportunities to advocate for better health care, education, and quality of life in grassroots politics.
American IDF soldier fought in Gaza, now fights for truth on college campuses - interview
Sam Fried put his finance career in the US on hold after October 7 to defend Israel on the battlefield. For The Jerusalem Post, Rebecca Szlechter interviews Fried about his efforts, leading with humanity, to engage with encampment activists, and the challenges he faced just trying to be heard.
Beginning his college tour at Queens College, there was a mob of over 200 people threatening and cursing at him. “I want the counterparties to come hear me and speak. I want people who are against the IDF to hear what I have to say. Unfortunately, there hasn't been room for that.” He spoke on the fact that the mob refused to listen to this speech and ask questions. Getting threatened by these individuals, Fried had to be escorted back by the police.
Melania Trump invokes humanity in a statement following the attack on her husband.
The former first lady calls on Americans to look beyond politics to the humanity and complexity of our fellow citizens—to practice love, compassion, kindness, and empathy in an effort to reunite after tragedy.
A monster who recognized my husband as an inhuman political machine attempted to ring out Donald’s passion—his laughter, ingenuity, love of music, and inspiration. The core facets of my husband’s life—his human side—were buried below the political machine.
We all want a world where respect is paramount, family is first, and love transcends. We can realize this world again. Each of us must demand to get it back. We must insist that respect fills the cornerstone of our relationships, again.
Jill Biden and Melania Trump speak after shooting.
Alex Gangitano in The Hill briefly covers calls made between the Bidens and Trumps in what appear to be genuine conciliatory gestures by both families.
The first ladies’ phone call followed a phone call Saturday night between President Biden and Trump. The president later said he had a good talk with his political rival.
“I’m sincerely grateful that he’s doing well and recovering. We had a short but good conversation,” Biden said Sunday. He added that he and the first lady are keeping Trump and his family in his prayers.
Farewell to Academe
Partly a celebration of the spirit of academe, partly a lament over its current state, Eliot A. Cohen writes for The Atlantic on the role of the academy and reflects on his career pursuing truth in service of his country, his colleagues, and his students.
Mine is, no doubt, a romanticized and possibly even a naive view of the university and its ideals. Its role as the repository and embodiment of high culture, civilized values, liberal education, and deep learning has been largely replaced by something more mechanical—the university as knowledge-producing factory and credential-providing mill. The old vision received fatal blows during the chaos of the 1960s, and succumbed to many forces—societal upheaval, the dramatic advances in science and technology, and the explosion of government funding among them.