Saturday, December 20, 2025

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Commentary

COMMENTARY

Avian club treats animals well

The State News recently published an article on the Avian Science Club’s annual Thanksgiving turkey sale (SN 9/27). As a MSU Avian Science Club e-board member, someone who spends time at the MSU Poultry Research and Teaching Center and an employee of the MSU Meat Laboratory, I can say I am thoroughly unimpressed with how the turkey sale and the club as a whole were represented.

COMMENTARY

Agreement not needed; just listen

While many questions race through my mind during the average school week, one in particular bombarded me from many angles this week. Do I agree with Kirk? My response: I’m not sure; I will know on Thursday. I know I am a strong supporter of the Constitution and the corresponding Bill of Rights, and I believe in Jesus Christ.

COMMENTARY

Demand passionately, not without respect

There was a time and a place for the Black Student Alliance, or BSA, to be indignant; that time was in the days immediately following the writing of racial slurs on students’ doors. The organization should have stifled that demeanor when speaking to MSU’s administration.

COMMENTARY

Energy committee’s process flawed

As an MSU Greenpeace member, I want to thank the State News’ Editorial Board for its praise of the activism at MSU. However, there is more to the story than the board’s comments convey.

COMMENTARY

MLK monument sets right tone

Traveling via bus to Washington, D.C., for the dedication of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. monument with some of the Greater Lansing Area Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Commissioners and others, I began reflecting on my memories of Dr. King.

COMMENTARY

Of Two Minds

I swear, this column wasn’t even going to be about race. Not because I dislike being black or anything like that; let’s be honest, being black is pretty awesome. It’s more because I don’t want to be become the guy who points out every single example of social and racial inequality until he’s homeless, jobless and gibbering on about how the system kept him down.

COMMENTARY

Arab women have brighter future

Man, oh man, doesn’t it feel right to be a Middle East woman nowadays — figuratively speaking. What I’m referring to is when Saudi Arabia’s 88-year-old King, Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, announced Sept. 25 that the women of his country have the right to vote and stand in elections, an issue which has been going on in that country for almost a half a century now.

COMMENTARY

Anxious students could find relief

A friend of mine recently signed up to be a subject in a sleep deprivation study. I told him he’s a stronger man than I am, and also crazy. For me, sleep loss leads to stress and a bad mood, so I won’t be volunteering myself for testing anytime soon.

COMMENTARY

Iraq troop drawdown not end of problems

Every generation has a war that defines them; our generation has the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, just like our parents had the Vietnam War, just like their parents had WWII. Today, our generation can share in the relief that our fathers and grandfathers felt because our war is over.

COMMENTARY

Do research before buying pink

Every year, department stores, pharmacies and even college campuses turn ‘pink’ with companies large and small slapping a ribbon on their products and feigning some interest in breast cancer awareness to woo compassionate consumers. We are encouraged to buy this or that, to wear this ribbon or this pink whatever in order to “support a cure.” As someone who has seen devastating effects of breast cancer firsthand, it has all gotten to be too much.

COMMENTARY

Business, politics often intersect

I always have found the intersection between business and politics fascinating. Most people don’t. Most people think of this link as an unhealthy combination of greed and political self-interest. They assume nothing meaningful can be learned from examining such a relationship.

COMMENTARY

Take stand against housing bias

As a student at MSU — one who is looking into housing off-campus next year — I would strongly encourage and support the East Lansing City Council’s resolution opposing action be taken by state legislators to deny lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered couples from renting property within East Lansing.