Monday, September 23, 2024

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Commentary

COMMENTARY

Smoke-free restaurants, bars a logical step for Mich.

I support House Bill 4163, legislation that could make all workplaces smoke-free, including bars and restaurants. As a college student, I like to go to local bars and restaurants to enjoy myself. I do not appreciate the overbearing, indiscreet stink of cigarette smoke on dry-clean-only clothing that cannot be dispelled by a douse of perfume. Nor do I appreciate having to inhale clouds of secondhand smoke.

COMMENTARY

Controlling caffeine habit good for health

It was a tensely silent moment. There I was, sitting in an Olin Health Center examining room a couple of months ago answering the doctor’s perfunctory questions regarding my general health. One question, however, said it all.

COMMENTARY

MSU professor's practices on cats cruel, unnecessary

Thank you for your article on the invasive and lethal eye experiments that MSU’s Arthur Weber has been conducting on cats, ““MSU prof in PETA poll for worst animal offender”“:http://www.statenews.com/index.php/article/2008/04/msu_prof_in_peta_poll_for_worst_animal_offender (SN 4/14).

COMMENTARY

Donations determine direction of universities

What makes the university system in the U.S. worthwhile is the diversity and variety that each institution offers to prospective students. One school might offer a great engineering program while another may specialize in liberal arts. The variety makes choosing a school an important and exciting decision.

COMMENTARY

Victims, community need to speak up

People wonder why I didn’t scream or try to get away. He grabbed me from behind and fondled my breasts, my crotch and my butt. Panic set in. I was in shock, paralyzed in the place where I stood. I didn’t even know what was happening. Ten other men stood around, watching, doing nothing to help me. One of them called out to him, “Hey, do you know this girl? What are you doing?”

COMMENTARY

Automatic college admission has few advantages

Getting into MSU or the University of Michigan is an achievement. And it should stay that way. If a proposed bill in the Michigan Legislature is passed, the top 10 percent of graduating students from every state high school would be offered admission to each of Michigan’s public universities.

COMMENTARY

Pride Week opportunity to fight for LBGT civil rights

Fifteen-year-old Lawrence King was shot and killed Feb. 12 in his school because of his sexual orientation and gender expression. In March, remarks by Sally Kern, an Oklahoma congresswoman, gained attention when she said gay people were more dangerous than terrorists. A transgender woman was recently found murdered in Detroit. Now, right next door in Lansing’s Old Town, home of gay bars Spiral Video Dance Bar and Esquire Bar, 10 separate buildings have been spray-painted with hate slurs such as, “Kill Gays,” “KG” and “Mushroom Militia Kill Gays.”

COMMENTARY

Olympics doesn't outshine Issues

As of late, the Olympic torch has looked more like a celebrity being chased by paparazzi or a controversial politician on the run than a historic symbol of a global athletic competition. In Paris, Olympic officials extinguished the flame and put it on a bus to avoid the crowds before they canceled a leg of its tour of Paris. Before the torch arrived in San Francisco, daring protesters climbed the Golden Gate Bridge to unfurl a giant banner that read “One World, One Dream, Free Tibet.”

COMMENTARY

National parks preservation must happen now

“Pave paradise and put up a parking lot” seems less like a catchy song lyric and more like a bleak reality. A report from the National Parks Conservation Association warns that Congress must spend about $100 million in land purchases during the 2009 fiscal year to help preserve the beauty of about 55 national parks.

COMMENTARY

Don't support animal cruelty; join SPAR in weekend protests

Starting 6 p.m. today and running through this weekend, Students Promoting Animal Rights invites East Lansing residents and MSU students to protest the university’s hosting of the Royal Hanneford Circus at Breslin Center. We will hold signs along Harrison Avenue to demonstrate our disapproval of hosting an act that is so cruel that it’s been banned in six countries and more than 50 cities worldwide.

COMMENTARY

Greeks' charity deserves more coverage than Cedar Fest riot

As I opened The State News on Monday morning, looking forward to reading articles on the accomplishments of the MSU greek community in the past week, I was absolutely disgusted when I did not find 1 inch of information about it. Instead of broadcasting an unprecedented accomplishment for the greek community and MSU as a whole, The State News pored over Cedar Fest.

COMMENTARY

Cedar Fest participants should not be suspended

When I first heard about how students that were arrested at Cedar Fest might face suspension or expulsion, I thought it was the right thing for the university to do. But then I realized a few things that caused me to change my mind. When most of the people are charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct, even a suspension is way overboard.

COMMENTARY

Riot unjustified; letter calling Mich. a 'police state' wrong

Other than his not being able to give any examples to substantiate his claims of the state of Michigan’s oppression toward its citizens, his opinion of students as enemies couldn’t have been any more incorrect. When I read Jeremy Frazier’s letter, Weekend’s riot not pointless, shows bad intentions of police (SN 4/8), all I was hearing was a weak argument that by showing up, the police were to blame for the riot.