Sunday, December 22, 2024

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Commentary

COMMENTARY

Michigan deserves a well-rounded governor

Ann Arbor businessman and Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Snyder seems to have charmed potential voters with his outsider appeal. In the latest poll released by Lansing-based polling firm EPIC-MRA, Snyder has 53 percent of the vote and the Democratic candidate, Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero, has 29 percent. The reasons for the separation stemmed in part from Snyder’s business experience.

COMMENTARY

We need to show more pride at MSU

A few days ago, I sat with a fairly large number of volunteers for the kickoff of the fall MSU Community Charitable Campaign, or MSUCCC, a campaign that raises almost $600,000 each year for primarily local charities and civic groups close to MSU’s campus.

COMMENTARY

Lineskipper.com represents prevalence of bar culture

MSU students now have become the dregs of society by taking a step closer to the complete and utter disregard for academia! This decree is, of course, in response to the half-page advertisement — poorly veiled as an objective article — for lineskipper.com featured in last Wednesday’s paper (“New website lets patrons skip lines around E.L.,” SN 9/15).

COMMENTARY

Tea Party finally meets its match

In announcing his “Rally to Restore Sanity,” comedian Jon Stewart said some curious things. He lamented that most normal Americans are too busy for today’s political discourse, overrun as it is by radical ideologues “on the Left and the Right.”

COMMENTARY

Illegal file sharing protocols handled with tact

Stealing is stealing. No matter if it’s a song that’s been on the radio repeatedly, or even if it’s a song that we’ve danced to at the eighth grade formal. It’s stealing even if it’s a song we’ve only liked for a week and then never listened to it again until it randomly comes up in a playlist. Illegal downloading is, by definition, illegal. The important question is: Is it really something MSU needs to address?

COMMENTARY

Today's problems stem from past

The recent worldwide controversy about Quran burnings, as well as concerns about cultural integration and assimilation, made me think about Western Europe and the situation it finds itself in during these times.

COMMENTARY

A little bit of understanding can go a long way

Who would have thought trash could bridge the divide between the permanent residents of East Lansing and MSU students? MSU’s Community Relations Coalition, or CRC, invited MSU students, as well as long-term residents, to clean up the streets and yards of East Lansing on Sunday after MSU’s victory over Notre Dame.

COMMENTARY

Court's ruling threatens rights

The fear of government encroachment on personal rights and privacy is as old as this great nation. Since a constitution has existed, people have suspected that the government would transgress upon it. The current climate in the U.S. echoes those age-old fears.

COMMENTARY

DREAM Act gives those without choice a chance

During the past year or so, there has been a great deal of talk about illegal immigrants. Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has spent plenty of time in the media spotlight defending her state’s relatively new immigration policies against organizations such as the ACLU and even the U.S. government.

COMMENTARY

Letters are dead; long live letters

This semester, the “Letters” section of the opinion page started out with a bang. First, there was the letter from an MSU alumnus castigating the greek community for paying lip service to what the author felt was a serious problem. A week later, the vice president of the fraternity in question responded in another letter.

COMMENTARY

Waste awareness brings bad habits to forefront

MSU has taken heed to the complaints about cafeteria food on campus being lackluster and has provided students with a dining experience known as Brody Square. Attacking the square in droves, students are acting such as a child in a candy store would: “I want this and that. Oh, and that.”

COMMENTARY

Renters not the root of all evil

In December 2009 I had a chance to cover an East Lansing City Council meeting where councilmembers rezoned sections of the Whitehills Neighborhood/Rudgate area North of Saginaw Street, south of Lake Lansing Road and west of Hagadorn Road to a R-O-1 designation, prohibiting all new rental licenses within the designated district.

COMMENTARY

Texting relevant, but not in school

According to a recent study by MSU researcher Jeff Grabill, texting is the No. 1 form of writing among college students. Grabill, the co-director of MSU’s Writing in Digital Environments Research Center, performed a study lasting from April to June about the writing behaviors of more than 1,300 first-year college students across the nation. He concluded, “The day of traditional college writing instruction are nearly over.”

COMMENTARY

Voter registration only the first step in process

Simply put, the right to vote is an essential feature of any democratic government. Another essential — although less acknowledged — factor, is that the more people who vote, the more likely the candidate or policies will represent the entirety of the interests of the constituents. Of course, the point is moot if one is not registered to vote.

COMMENTARY

The truth will help us overcome

I wasn’t surprised to hear Matt Lauer proclaim he was “shocked” on NBC’s “Today” show when he talked to Shirley Sherrod about her resignation from the U.S. Department of Agriculture in July over alleged racist comments. He could not believe the “garbage” said about her would lead both the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, or NAACP, and the White House to demand her resignation without any confirmation.

COMMENTARY

New era of ASMSU should be one of collaboration

In any story about undergraduate student government at MSU, there will almost always be this sentence, “ASMSU is MSU’s undergraduate student government.” It’s there because without it the reader might not know the function of ASMSU.

COMMENTARY

Fraternity responds to MSU Alumnus' critical letter

When it came to the attention of at the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity that a social gathering titled “The Freshman ‘Fifth’teen” appeared to give a misleading impression, the decision was made to immediately cancel the event without question or hesitation.