Coming off an election year where we had a fairly calm presidential campaign in terms of competition and a Congress that moved even further toward partisanship, we have seen a persistent trend that has plagued this country for decades.
I miss the sound of more than 350 girls chanting together in unison, something I heard all summer long. In the dining hall. Before raising the flag. After the cookie line. In the auditorium. I heard it every day multiple times a day, and I wish I could hear it just one more time.
There’s a lot of people in this world I don’t like. The list gets bigger almost every day. If I bothered to keep track, it would probably be in the thousands by now. No person — no matter how unimportant — is exempt from appearing as part of my running tally.
We have problems. I don’t think a single person currently living in Michigan, or even the U.S., could deny that fact. The real question, one that will probably be debated for years, is where exactly do the origins of our current problems lay?
President Barack Obama has been in office for about half a year. In that time, he has ended both wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Confused? You can stop scratching your head now.
Watching my former resident mentor deliver the commencement speech for his graduation, I couldn’t help but wonder what challenges I will face in my next two years before I become part of what he called “an unbroken line of distinguished alumni.”
There’s a group of people on campus that you might not know much about. They don’t belong to any formal association, but their presence is noticeable. Are you reading this in Espresso Royale? Do you see a lot of wool clothing? Watch out, you’re surrounded by them. In fact, if you’re drinking coffee and reading a college newspaper opinion column, you might be one yourself. They’re hipsters.
Are you one of those people who get a coffee at Sparty’s, uses their credit card, and then ignores taking the receipt? Are you one of those people who buys gas with cash and then drives away without even wanting a receipt? Or are you one of those people who feels that speed is more important than waiting a second to receive that little slip of paper that is completely worthless in your life?
If you could choose the day you die, would you? A woman in Washington did just that, becoming the first person to take advantage of Washington’s assisted suicide law last week.
Since I’ve been old enough to remember, I’ve suckled at the teat of technology. While my parents were raising my sister, I was being incubated by the warm glow of my television. But I wasn’t raised on cable TV; I was raised on Nintendo.
The past few years have obviously been bad ones for Michigan. Thousands of auto-related jobs have been and continue to be eliminated, the financial crisis poured salt in our wounds and our largest city is giving Chicago a run for its money in the competition for the most corrupt city government award.
Two weeks ago, after 29 years as a Republican senator, Arlen Specter crossed the aisle and became a Democrat. This action alone, which gives the Democrats a potentially filibuster-free majority in the Senate, isn’t even the most interesting part. That distinction goes to the reason why.
In 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit the Ninth Ward of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. Even though it has been almost four years since one of the most damaging hurricanes in our nation’s history occurred, its after-effects will be around for many more to come.
OctoMom, or Nadya Suleman as she is occasionally known, seems to be in the midst of a legal dispute. Apparently, lawyer and noted women’s rights activist Gloria Allred has filed a petition to require supervision of OctoMom’s eight infants, all in anticipation of the filming of her new reality show.
Recently I’ve found opening a newspaper or surfing the Web brings one phrase to mind over and over again.
America’s first black president was inaugurated. The university lost five of its students The MSU men’s basketball team vied for the NCAA Championship in Detroit. You don’t need me to tell you it was a memorable semester at MSU. But it was especially memorable for us at The State News.
Walking across the stage at my high school graduation, I thought I knew exactly who I was. I left high school with the notion I was going to attend the University of Colorado at Boulder, enter the hard-hitting world of print journalism and focus on my career. I was dead set on the direction of my future.
I had a million things on my to-do list when I was 10 years old, and I have been able to accomplish hardly any of those goals. Granted, my mind was more imaginative and far less realistic than now. So no, I never became or will become a professional baseball player; I never will have a pet dinosaur; nor will I ever be 7 feet tall (but I only wanted to try that out for a day anyway).
It is the country where my parents were born. It is a country that shares a rich history of ancient civilizations with its neighbors, including India. But it is one of the most troubled countries in the world.
Last week marked the 10-year anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre in Littleton, Colo. People across the country marked the solemn date in different ways and survivors remembered the peers they lost on April 20, 1999.