Today's Heros: Universities, Pope Francis, Canadian voters

Universities
My love for my university is life-long and deep.
After I got my own degree, I spent much of my working life as an employee of my university. I had various positions over the years - writing the alumni magazine and other publications, assembling the college's course catalogue, advising students, assigning offices for faculty, working with faculty committees - it was interesting and rewarding work. 

Not only that, but my family's involvement with my university was historic - in the 30s, a time when many women never considered going to university, my mother and her three sisters all graduated from my university with degrees - two teachers, a nurse and an accountant. When I attended in due time, I met my husband there. And our children also got their first degrees there; now our daughter and daughter-in-law are on the faculty.
"Academic freedom" is a core value for my whole family.
So I am absolutely appalled by Trump's attempt to tell universities who to hire, what to teach, and what to research. 

And I am so proud that, led by Harvard, universities across the United States are now standing up to his fascism.

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Sandy Tolan / Rolling Stone

Trump’s Claims of Antisemitism Are About Bringing Universities to Their Knees
The president’s attacks on college campuses are positioned as ways to protect Jewish Americans, but the actions should terrify everyone
... Our times demand resistance. Besides some universities finally pushing back, thousands of professors are speaking out as well. In an open letter to the presidents of 60 universities in Trump crosshairs over alleged antisemitism, some 4,700 faculty nationwide declared, “You are on the frontlines of a war that is unfolding against U.S. higher education. We look to you for leadership and coalition-building during a time when the stakes have never been higher.” The letter called on “all sixty institutions under government threat to unite in a coordinated, proactive defense.” And the American Association of University Professors filed a First Amendment lawsuit in Massachusetts federal court, accusing Trump administration officials of attempting to “arrest…and deport noncitizen students and faculty based on their political viewpoints.”
If the deportations don’t terrify you yet, consider this: Erik Prince, a close Trump ally and founder of the private military contractor Blackwater, is advancing a $25 billion proposal to the White House to build mass detention centers in order to deport some 12 million immigrants. Who knows who else could end up there?
“Homegrowns are next,” Trump said this week to Salvadoran strongman president Nayib Bukele, who is already housing alleged gang members shipped by ICE to El Salvador’s notorious Terrorism Confinement Center. “You’ve gotta build about five more places,” Trump said, to laughter in the White House.
We need to act fast. “The time is now to stand up,” Eric Holder, former U.S. Attorney General, told Rachel Maddow last week. “This is disgusting, it’s shameful, and it’s inconsistent with who we are as a nation. Every citizen of this country ought to be afraid. Because the reality is if they are successful in doing this to immigrants…this is how you get authoritarianism. This is remarkably similar to what happened in Europe in the 1930s.
“If you don’t stand up and fight now, if you don’t take a position now, it’s going to be too late.”

Jesus Christ. These people are as incompetent as they are evil. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/18/b...

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— Aiding And Abetting Terrorists Hat (@kenwhite.bsky.social) April 18, 2025 at 8:39 PM

This is ominous:

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Pope Francis

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I'd like to think Pope Francis came back from the brink of death solely to clown on JD Vance.

— Schooley (@schooley.bsky.social) April 19, 2025 at 8:29 PM

Canadian voters
It's heartening and inspirational, how Canadians are so eager to vote in this election.
Two million Canadians voted on Good Friday, the first day of the advance polls.
When we voted on Saturday, we didn't have to wait. But the poll workers said that people waited for 90 minutes on Friday, and they were stunned when they had a thousand turn out to our poll.
Conventional wisdom is that high turnout reflects a "throw the bums out" rage. But that's not likely the case anymore with this election:
Evan Scrimshaw / Scrimshaw Unscripted

Turnout For The Asking
Who Is Helped By High Turnout?
...The case for the Conservatives was always that they had a highly engaged base of people who hated Justin Trudeau that will remember all of the reasons that they hated Trudeau and his government even with a fresh coat of paint...(However) The higher you crank turnout, the more likely you’re going to get voters who rarely if ever interact with the political process, many of whom were activated by the 51st State stuff and the tariff war.
...The Trump Effect has been in a lot of ways activating a Canadian pride that’s been dormant for a while, a pride that tapped into all facets of culture. The Four Nations Faceoff final - a fake tournament with no heritage, little build up, and no fundamental stakes - got more viewers in Canada than anything short of Game 7 of the Cup Final last year, in large part because of the tariff threats and the political instability. It’s also activated voters who haven’t bothered voting in a while but who seem to on the whole think Carney’s pretty okay.
Does the high early vote numbers mean anything for total turnout? Maybe not. But high turnout does help the Liberals here... infrequent voters activated by Trump are breaking for us, and Liberals should be happy with high turnout.

Oh, I hope so.
Finally, here's an inspirational piece:
Danny I.P. – No Retreat. No Surrender

The Line Is Drawn: Canadians Are Voting Like Our Future Depends on It—Because It Does
The line didn’t just snake around polling stations today.
It snaked around history.
From Fredericton to Fort McMurray, St. John’s to Surrey, Canadians are turning out in record-shattering numbers for advance voting. Not out of habit—but out of necessity. We’re not just voting early. We’re voting with purpose.
You could feel it in the air—like something has shifted.
People brought their dogs, their kids, their hope, their exhaustion. And they stood there, quietly making one of the loudest statements this country has heard in years:
“We’re not letting Canada fall.”
Nicole Bent said it best after casting her early ballot:
“It feels more important to vote and make sure we keep having the country that we want.”
And let’s be honest—there’s no mistaking why this feels more important.
Because on the other side of the border, Donald Trump is in office again. Wielding power like a weapon, threatening allies, ripping up democracy brick by brick.
And here at home? Pierre Poilievre is waiting in the wings with a Trump playbook tucked under his arm.
...This is what happens when Canadians realize the threat is real.
When we watch our neighbours descend into chaos and finally say, “Not here. Not us.”
It’s a line in the sand, drawn with ballots and boots on pavement.
The message is clear:
We’ve seen what fascism looks like.
We’ve seen what lies can do.
We’ve seen what happens when people don’t show up.
Not this time.
This time, we stand.
This time, we choose decency over division.
Compassion over cruelty.
Truth over tyranny.
The lineups are long—but they’re worth every second.
Because at the end of that line?
Canada still belongs to us.
... Let’s finish what we’ve started. Let’s win this—for all of us.