Dear Commons Community,

My daughter Dawn Marie’s family (husband Bruce, children Michael and Ali) arrived yesterday to spend time  with us in Rome.  For the children’s first visit, we walked through the Pantheon, the Piazza Navona, and ended up at the Trevi Fountain.  The Pantheon is an iconic  2,000 year old structure with a domed roof built by Agrippa.  Originally a temple, it now functions as a church.  My grandchildren asked me several times if they used machines to build it.   The Piazza Navona is a favorite go-to place in Rome mainly because it is great for people-watching and to take in the street acts (singers,musicians, fire-twirlers, tumblers).  Trevi maintains its allure as one of the most beautiful fountains in the world.

Tony

Piazza Navona (Michael and Ali in Foreground)

Pantheon

Elaine, Ali, and Dawn Marie Walking the Streets of Rome

Dear Commons Community,

We spent two days in Assisi in the Umbria hill country. The entire area of Assisi is breathtaking and the vistas are magnificent.  Assisi is the birthplace of Francis who is among the most-beloved saints in Roman Catholicism.  In addition to Francis, there are two cathedrals in Assisi that honor St. Clair and St. Rufino. The Basilica of San Francesco is impressive to say the least and is famous for its collection of Giotto frescoes which adorn the entire Upper Church.  The Lower Church has an altar that contains the burial crypt of Francis.  During our visit, a continuous line of worshipers could be seen kneeling and praying at this altar. 

A wonderful two days that were filled with beauty and spirituality.

Tony

View from our hotel (Hotel Umbra)

Basilica of San Francesco

Giotto Frescoes in the Upper Church

Altar and Crypt of Francis of Assisi in Lower Church

Basilica of San Francesco (with Elaine in the Lower Right Corner)

Dear Commons Community,

Ostia is Rome’s ancient seaport.  It was abandoned in the 5th Century after the fall of Rome.   Today you can see ruins (Ostia Antica) from 300-400 CE.  Below are several photos from our afternoon there.

Tony

Baths of Neptune

One of Ostia’s Main Streets

Forum and Government House

Amphitheater

Dear Commons Community,

Yesterday we visited the Museo Nazionale dell’Alto Medioevo with our colleague, Cecilia Bartoli.  It is off the normal Roman touring sites and focuses on art from the medieval period.  The most impressive aspect of the museum’s collection are tiles from about 400 (CE).  See examples below.

Tony

Cecilia and Elaine

Bearded (Possibly Christ) Figure

Side Wall

Dear Commons Community,

Elaine and I are visiting Rome.  Here are some photos from the Capitoline Hill, probably  the most famous of the seven hills.  Above is a view of the Forum (foreground) and the Pallatine Hill in the background.

Below are pieces from the Capitoline Museums that house a group of art and archeological museums in Piazza del Campidoglio, on top of the Capitoline Hill in Rome, Italy. The historic seats of the museums are Palazzo dei Conservatori and Palazzo Nuovo, facing on the central trapezoidal piazza in a plan conceived by Michelangelo Buonarroti in 1536 and executed over a period of more than 400 years.  

Wonderful architecture, sculpture, and views.

Tony

Marforio – River God

Marcus Aurelius

Forum Arch

Dear Commons Community,

The Chicago Teachers Union held a “Day of Action” strike yesterday that forced the cancellation of classes for more than 300,000 students. In the morning, teachers hoisted signs and chanted outside neighborhood schools. Then they shifted to a series of midday rallies at the city’s college campuses, where demonstrators lambasted the state’s politicians over what they called inadequate funding and support. The one-day walkout was designed to draw attention to the ongoing contract battle between the teachers union and Chicago Public School administrators, who are wrangling over pay, pension and staffing levels in the cash-strapped school district.  As reported in The Chicago Tribune:

“Chicago Teachers Union members and their supporters capped a day of protests by converging in the Loop on Friday afternoon for a rush-hour rally and march.

Teachers gathered at the Thompson Center for a demonstration against budget and program cuts, aiming their frustration at city and state leaders. With the classic Public Enemy song “Fight the Power” blaring, thousands of demonstrators clad in red packed the plaza in front of the state government center.

A cold rain did not dampen the carnival-like atmosphere as teachers, students and their allies cheered on speakers who criticized Gov. Bruce Rauner and Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Police on the scene estimated the crowd to be around 5,000.

“We need funding across the state,” said Denise Racky, a citywide school nurse.”

Congratulations to the Chicago Teachers Union for an effective show of strength and getting their message across.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Appearing Wednesday on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert on CBS, Elizabeth Warren, the senator from Massachusetts, continued her withering criticism of Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump, whom she slammed as a “loser” and “serious threat” during an impassioned tweetstorm last week.

Warren told Colbert that voters shouldn’t buy Trump’s populist image, arguing that he’s simply a tycoon out for himself.

“Donald Trump is looking out for exactly one guy, and that guy’s name is Donald Trump,” Warren said. “So, look — he smells that there’s change in the air, and what he wants to do is ensure that that change works really, really well for Donald Trump.”

Resurfacing an attack leveled by former GOP presidential hopeful Marco Rubio, Warren dismissed Trump’s business acumen, depicting him as a son of privilege.

“This is the deal: You gotta kind of look a little closer at Donald Trump, because this is his main claim to how it is that he says he’s qualified to be president of the United States,” she said.

Asked whether calling Trump a “loser” perpetuated a culture of playground politics, Warren rejected the notion.

“This isn’t name-calling,” she said. “This is taking the credential that he claims he’s running on — and that is his business success, and saying, ‘No, Buster, we’re not buying that.’ He is not a business success. He is a business loser.

“We have an economy that’s in real trouble, but when the economy is in this kind of trouble, calling on Donald Trump for help is like if your house is on fire calling an arsonist to come help out.”

Wow!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Governor Andrew Cuomo and the NYS legislature reached agreement on a budget last night but details are sketchy.  As expected and according to a New York Times article, the budget will not require the City of New York to pick up $485 million in funding for the City University of New York nor will there be a tuition increase.  Professional Staff Congress President Barbara Bowen in a letter to the her membership stated: “The budget fails to include any back-pay for CUNY employees and appears to include inadequate funds to replace revenue that would otherwise have come from increased tuition.”

A number of other hard-fought items such as minimum wage and school district funding will be featured as part of the new budget. 

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Harvard’s President Drew Faust announced yesterday that the university would recognize its role in slavery.  As reported in various media:

“Harvard University plans to install a plaque next week honoring four slaves who worked on the campus in the 1700s, to acknowledge its role in slavery, the Ivy League university’s president said on Wednesday.

“Although we embrace and regularly celebrate the storied traditions of our nearly 400-year history, slavery is an aspect of Harvard‘s past that has rarely been acknowledged or invoked,” Drew Faust said in an op-ed in the Harvard Crimson student newspaper. “Harvard was directly complicit in America’s system of racial bondage from the college’s earliest days in the 1700s until slavery in Massachusetts ended in 1783.”

University officials on April 6 will install a plaque on Wadsworth House, the second-oldest building on campus, which formerly served as the university president’s home and now is an office building. It will honor four slaves named Bilhah, Venus, Titus and Juba, who worked in the university president’s home in the 18th century.

Earlier in March, the prestigious university decided to drop the 80-year-old coat of arms of its law school, because it featured the family crest of a slaveholder who was an early donor to the institution.

Faust also was quoted as saying:

“We need to understand the attitudes and assumptions that made the oppressions of slavery possible in order to overcome their vestiges in our own time. It should not be because we feel superior to our predecessors that we interrogate and challenge their actions. We should approach the past with humility because we too are humans with capacities for self-delusion, for moral failure and blindness, for inhumanity. If we can better understand how oppression and exploitation could seem commonplace to so many of those who built Harvard, we may better equip ourselves to combat our own shortcomings and to advance justice and equality in our own time. At its heart, this endeavor must be about “Veritas,” about developing a clear-sighted view of our past that can enable us to create a better future.

The past never dies or disappears. It continues to shape us in ways we should not try to erase or ignore. In more fully acknowledging our history, Harvard must do its part to undermine the legacies of race and slavery that continue to divide our nation.”

A small but important step!

Tony