brotherhood – Houghton STAR

By Cody Johnson

Did you know that the United States’ oldest surviving daily newspaper was founded in Philadelphia?

The Philadelphia Inquirer has been published every day since September 21, 1784, sometimes under a different name. The Inquirer’s predecessor was even the first newspaper to publish George Washington’s Farewell Address. Our nation is built on news. And it seems appropriate that Americans’ ritual of reading the daily news began in Philadelphia, “the City of Brotherly Love.”

As a community of Americans, we have obligations. There are civic obligations (obeying the law, paying taxes) and civic responsibilities (voting, community engagement). We do these things because we love our country — and furthermore, because we love each other.

Some people say that love does not discriminate. But we necessarily discriminate between our friends and enemies; friends receive love that enemies do not. That is philia, or filial love.

Philia demands more than other kinds of love. Agape — the word Christ uses when He says to “love your enemies” — does not discriminate. Philia, on the other hand, describes love between close friends or brothers, like David and Jonathan in 1 Samuel. It makes us feel loved and safe, like people in a perfect city. This was William Penn’s vision for Philadelphia.

Americans are bound to each other by filial love. To love America is to love Americans and to love them especially. We afford each other rights and privileges because of our shared love and community.

Loving someone in this way requires knowing them and their needs. You cannot treat your professor to their favorite food without first knowing what their favorite food is. Knowing your professor’s favorite food is a prerequisite if you want to love them filially. Knowledge is an obligation.

The same obligation extends to the country and people you love. It is impossible to love them fully without first knowing them.

Last weekend, I attended a conference at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., and heard from scholars in foreign policy, technology, and culture. I felt disconnected from those conversations because they were not happening on our campus. Students stare blankly at professors when asked about current events. We do not engage with news on a regular basis, so our conversations remain theoretical and opinionated.

We joke about the Houghton bubble, and it has its merits, but the Houghton bubble is dangerous to civic engagement. We become so focused on our present community that we disengage from the rest of the world. While you are at Houghton, you are simultaneously in Allegany County, New York, the United States, and the world. Brotherly love extends beyond Houghton and demands that we learn about the world we live in. When was the last time you read a newspaper that wasn’t The Star?

Staying informed is a commitment; it requires time that we could commit to other interests or relationships. Nonetheless, it is the same commitment we make to our closest friends: to listen to what is happening in their lives and love them better accordingly. Your friend complains about being tired, and you buy them a latte from Java.

We must make the same commitment to our country — not to buy it coffee, but to learn and respond to its events. Staying informed allows you to engage with the world intelligently.

Love — even and especially between brothers — does not guarantee agreement. Conversations between well-informed people will be uncomfortable as you learn and grow, but that is part of our civic obligation.

My daily ritual has been to delete The New York Times’s morning newsletter from my inbox without opening it. This week, I am changing that out of love for America and my fellow Americans. It takes five minutes to read the headlines and learn what is happening in our brothers’ and sisters’ lives in the United States and abroad. Pick up an old-fashioned newspaper and reclaim the media tradition our nation is built on. Follow a specific issue, journalist, or scholar. By engaging with the news, you demonstrate filial love for the people around you.

With whatever means necessary, it is time for us to step outside the Houghton bubble. ★

An Egyptian court on Monday, February 1st 2015, sentenced 183 Muslim Brotherhood supporters to death. The court proceedings were held over the killing of 11 police officers in the violence that had engulfed Egypt after the 2013 dismissal of the former Islamist president, President Mohammed Morsi.

The attack took place after Egyptian military forces cracked down on Islamist supporters of Morsi in July 2013. Egyptian security forces descended onto two pro-Morsi camps in July and August 2013, killing hundreds.

At the end of July and beginning of August 2013, hundreds of demonstrators were killed by Egyptian security forces. The Human Rights Watch said that this mass killing of protesters “probably amounts to crimes against humanity,” thus creating an international outcry that was quickly quieted by the Egyptian government.

The United Nations has called the trials “unprecedented.” Amnesty International’s Deputy Middle East and North Africa Program Director, Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, said in a statement in response to Monday’s verdict. “The death sentences are yet another example of the bias of the Egyptian criminal justice system.”

Sahraoui further stated that “issuing mass death sentences whenever the case involves the killing of police officers now appears to be near-routine policy, regardless of facts and with no attempt to establish individual responsibility.”

The original trial saw 377 people sentenced to life in prison in absentia, while not present at the event being referred to. Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui said it would be wrong to impose the capital punishment “when there are serious doubts hanging over the fairness of the trial which disregarded international law.”

The Egyptian court did not put 183 individuals to death lightly. The Egyptian government has been attempting to fight against terrorism in Egypt. Muslim extremism has seen an increase in central Egypt in the past decade, and President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has been fighting against these extremists.

Egypt’s current government, led by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, has called for a ‘religious revolution’ and asked Muslim leaders to help in the fight against extremism. President el-Sisi has launched a war against terrorism, focusing particularly on the countries Sinai region, where an extremist group recently pledged allegiance to ISIS.

In an act of counter extremism, Egyptian authorities cracked down in 2013 on former supporters of Morsi, a longtime member of the Muslim Brotherhood, which the Egyptian government had officially declared a terrorist organization in December 2013

In a speech on New Year’s Day, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi called for a “religious revolution” in Islam that would displace violent jihad from the center of Muslim discourse. “Is it possible that 1.6 billion people should want to kill the rest of the world’s population, [which] is 7 billion people, so that they themselves may live?” President el-Sisi asked.

“We have to think hard about what we are facing,” President el-Sisi said. “It’s inconceivable that the thinking that we hold most sacred should cause the entire Islamic world to be a source of anxiety, danger, killing, and destruction for the rest of the world. Impossible.”