Category: op-ed

Louisiana’s Ten Commandments law is dangerously wrong on history and religion

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Mark Chancey, professor of religious studies at SMU Dallas, for a commentary critical of the Louisiana law mandating the display of the Ten Commandments in public schools. Published in The Hill under the heading Louisiana’s Ten Commandments law is dangerously wrong on history and religion: https://tinyurl.com/bdepz87h ​

Louisiana’s new law to mandate display of the Ten Commandments in public schools manages to mangle both history and the Ten Commandments themselves.

It justifies its mandate by suggesting the Founding Fathers would have favored it, citing a quotation it attributes to James Madison: “We have staked the whole future of our new nation upon the capacity of each of ourselves to govern ourselves according to the moral principles of the Ten Commandments.”

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Skilled Artists Create Art; ‘Creatives,’ No

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June 25, Robert Hunt, director of global theological education at the SMU Dallas Perkins School of Theology, for a commentary outlining a difference between the way Artificial Intelligence might generate “art” and how trained human artists follow a different process and produce different results. Published in Inside Sources under the heading Skilled Artists Create Art; ‘Creatives,’ No: https://tinyurl.com/3uva6tt6 ​

 

The word “artist” derives from the Latin “ars.” It refers to skill or craftsmanship. In popular understanding, an artist has creative ideas and the skill and craft to make these ideas manifest in works of art.

But in Silicon Valley culture and the tech industries in general, the word “artist” has been replaced by “a creative” or “creatives” in the plural.

A creative, in Silicon Valley parlance, is a person who makes Instagram videos, TikTok videos, YouTube videos, podcasts, and other social media content. It is “creatives” who manufacture content to fill the endless need for anything that will keep eyeballs on screens so that data can be collected and advertisements sold.

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U.S. v. Rahimi Denies Abusers Firearms. The Decision Is an Outlier.

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June 24, Natalie Nanasi, associate professor at the Dedman School of Law, SMU Dallas, and director of the Judge Elmo B. Hunter Legal Center for Victims of Crimes Against Women, for an analysis of a Supreme Court ruling that maintains a ban on firearms possession for domestic violence offenders. Published in Ms. Magazine under the heading U.S. v. Rahimi Denies Abusers Firearms. The Decision Is an Outlier: https://tinyurl.com/3vcmchfz ​

 

Survivors of domestic violence have won a battle in the war for common sense gun regulations. In an 8-1 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court held Friday, June 21, that abusers subject to protective orders can continue to be denied access to firearms.

The decision in Rahimi v. United States to uphold federal law will save lives. Over half of women under the age of 45 who are murdered in the United States are killed by their intimate partner. Guns are the weapon of choice in these heartbreaking, and preventable, crimes.

Disarming domestic abusers makes our communities safer. A sizeable percentage of men who commit mass shootings have a history of intimate partner violence, and perpetrators are more likely than the average citizen to endanger the life of a police officer.

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Blaming faculty when protests erupt ignores how we teach

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June 12, Jill DeTemple, professor of religious studies at SMU Dallas, for a piece challenging the position that what faculty members teach incites students and community members to protest. Published in the Dallas Morning News under the heading Blaming faculty when protests erupt ignores how we teach: https://tinyurl.com/3c533a9p ​

Student protests in support of Gaza have captured the attention of Congress, editorial writers and everyday citizens. Some have expressed solidarity with protesters, characterizing them as “invest[ing] in what’s happening in the world,”or “exercising their fundamental human rights.” Some have condemned them as “disruptive,” “uninformed,” “antisemitic” or “violent.”

Any of these descriptions could be true to a degree as the protests, like the conflict to which they respond, are complex social phenomena happening in the midst of profound political and social instability. Students demanding divestment, chanting slogans, and responding to death and destruction have themselves lived through the prolonged disruption of a global pandemic, a nation at war for the vast majority of their lives, and political polarization at a level as high as it’s been since the Civil War.

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Upset win heralded America’s presence on the world cricket stage

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June 11, Hemang Desai, a professor of accounting for the Cox School of Business at SMU Dallas (and an avid cricket fan), for a piece giving perspective to the recent successes of Team USA based in Dallas and cricket’s rise in popularity overall. Published in the Dallas Morning News under the heading Upset win heralded America’s presence on the world cricket stage: https://tinyurl.com/34stk6vx ​

 

Thursday marked one of the greatest triumphs in American sports. USA Cricket upset Pakistan in the Group Stage of the International Cricket Council Men’s T20 Cricket World Cup at Grand Prairie Stadium. To American cricket fans, this is reminiscent of the “Miracle on Ice” when the U.S. hockey team defeated the Soviet Union during the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid, N.Y.

The unheralded U.S. squad, comprising mostly semiprofessional cricketers, defeated a mighty Pakistani national team, who were finalists in the previous T20 World Cup in 2022. Even the NBC Nightly News covered the event.

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Mexico’s first female president faces critical issues, challenging US relationship

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June 8, Jennifer Apperti, director of the SMU Dallas Mission Foods Texas-Mexico Center, for a piece outlining the challenges Mexico’s President-Elect Claudia Sheinbaum may face when she assumes the presidency in October. Published in the Austin American-Statesman under the heading Mexico’s first female president faces critical issues, challenging US relationship: https://tinyurl.com/278pturp ​

 

Mexico’s presidential election has given the country a historic first: Claudia Sheinbaum becomes the country’s first woman president. That is an important milestone in a country that continues to struggle with gender inequality.

However, the lead-up to the June 2 vote made history for another reason: This election cycle —spanning from Sept. 2023 to May 2024— became the most violent one in the country’s history. There were 24 candidates killed in 2024 alone, and according to a joint study by Mexican think tanks México Evalúa, Data Cívica and Animal Político, a total of 573 people have suffered political violence since the electoral process began. Now, Mexico’s newly elected president has to face a country not only more polarized than before, but also one where criminal violence has spread into the country’s political life.

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Shall we lose our humanity for AI?

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June 1, Robert Hunt, director of global theological education at the SMU Dallas Perkins School of Theology, for a commentary contemplating whether AI will compromise our ability to be human and appreciate life. Published in the Dallas Morning News under the heading Shall we lose our humanity for AI? : https://tinyurl.com/bd636ej2 ​

At a recent presentation on artificial intelligence, I was asked a rhetorical question: Will most of us will be intelligent enough to survive in the age of AI?

Even after all the AI advances, it is the wrong question.

The real question is whether we will be human enough to survive in an AI age.

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How would the nation’s founders view Trump’s conviction?

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May 31, Jeffrey Engel, David Gergen director of the Center for Presidential History at SMU Dallas, for a commentary examining how the judicial system designed by the founders held up to political pressures in a case against a former president — and the rule of law prevailed. Published in the Dallas Morning News under the heading How would the nation’s founders view Trump’s conviction? https://tinyurl.com/bhp2s2zw ​

 

Donald Trump has now become the first former president convicted of a felony, and the men who wrote the Constitution would be pleased to see the system they designed held up.

No doubt they would be saddened to learn that any high-ranking national leader fell afoul of the law. But they would not be surprised, because they designed a political system with human fallibility as its first principle, and thus with accountability in mind for even the most powerful among us.

When considering an office designed with the morally unimpeachable George Washington in mind, Benjamin Franklin observed at the Constitutional Convention that “the first man put at the helm may be a good one.” Yet “nobody knows what sort may come afterwards.”

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Credit Millennials for Their Swiftie Rise to Success

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May 21, Michael L. Davis, economics professor at the Cox School of Business, SMU Dallas, for a commentary about the advantages the internet afforded Millennials — who capitalized on the digital assets for career success. Published in Inside Sources under the heading Credit Millennials for Their Swiftie Rise to Success:  https://tinyurl.com/3459xdyu 

Quick, what’s the name of Taylor Swift’s latest album?

Too easy? Try this: What’s the name of her most popular album?

If you were born after 1981, you probably got these right. “Tortured Poets Department” came out in mid-April; “1989” is the best seller.

Both are worth listening to (and if you have a young daughter, you don’t have a choice). But “1989” is worth thinking about. That’s because 1989 was also the year Swift was born.

Yep, Taylor Swift is a millennial. She’s part of a cohort of people born between 1981 and 1996.

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Biden must stop inflation denial and quit doing dumb things

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April 16, Michael L. Davis, economics professor at the Cox School of Business, SMU Dallas, for a piece calling out the Biden Administration for denying the presence and negative impacts of inflation. Published in FoxBusiness under the heading Biden must stop inflation denial and quit doing dumb things: https://tinyurl.com/bdz6ftkb ​

So, these three middle-aged guys go in for their annual checkup. They get terrible news. They’ve got high blood pressure, bad cholesterol and if they gain another two pounds, they’ll be officially classified as “severely obese.” The doctor says that even though they feel fine now, the future is not bright.

The first guy convinces himself it’s not so bad. He tells himself it’s just a temporary thing — probably too much time at the all-you-can-eat on that last trip to Vegas — and that once things get back to normal, he’ll be fine.

The second guy goes home and tells his wife she needs to help make things right — maybe save the bacon and eggs for weekends. But then, of course, he sits down in his recliner with a bag of chips, grabs the remote and asks her to bring him a beer.

The third guy pulls out a picture of his 2-month-old granddaughter and promises himself to change. Six months later, he’s at the gym swapping salmon recipes with his workout buddies.

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