Monday, April 6, 2026

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Commentary

COMMENTARY

iPods for K-12 students unnecessary

When addressing the actions of Michigan's legislature, one has to sometimes step back and just wonder how any of these people got elected. Case in point: Michigan finds itself facing a debt — which comes to roughly $644 million for the current fiscal year alone, for those of you keeping track at home — and rather than the two parties working together to come up with a solution to the mounting crisis, each side just keeps wasting time. The latest example?

COMMENTARY

Counteractive steps

If there is one overarching theme of all social studies classes, it's the idea that the study of history serves as a guide for the future.

COMMENTARY

Free speech column has many flaws in argument

In response to "Getting thick skin" (SN 4/10), I would borrow from White House press secretary Tony Snow in describing Jessica Byrom's argument: "It melts on contact." First, she cannot assume people "were not outraged" at the vandalizing of a congressman's office during the anti-war protest.

COMMENTARY

Mich. shouldn't have official language

To help alleviate the state's budget deficit, Rep. Jack Hoogendyk, R-Kalamazoo, has introduced a bill to declare English as Michigan's official language. The designation, according to Hoogendyk, would save the state millions of dollars currently allocated to translating governmental documents from departments such as the Secretary of State. The state currently is facing a combined $3 billion deficit. While Gov.

COMMENTARY

Fundamentalism is not associated in 2 religions

In her column "Getting Thick Skin" (SN 4/10), Jessica Byrom implies that calling a Baptist a fundamentalist is tantamount to calling him a terrorist. Christian fundamentalism refers to a specific movement within Christianity that stresses the infallibility and literal truth of the Bible, and is not a disparaging term.

COMMENTARY

Leasing nightmare

The dorms are a lot like your parents. They provide food and shelter, wash your clothes and monitor your guests.

COMMENTARY

Do not renew No Child Left Behind

Like some kind of ill-conceived, legislative zombie, No Child Left Behind is back on the plate, and it refuses to die. Pressed by both the president and the legislators who supported it the first time around (oh, Teddy Kennedy — what were you thinking?), No Child Left Behind is now being considered for renewal in Congress. It's time to break out the shotguns (to stick with the zombie analogy) and destroy this thing before it can do any more damage. When it was initially conceived in 2001, it seemed like a good idea: Pass a law that requires schools to be held accountable for educating their students.

COMMENTARY

A living-giving gift

How very lucky we are to live in an era of advanced medicine and longer lives. It is incredible to think of how many people are alive today because of the advances in medical technology and treatments that have been made in the past 50 years. In one such example, a friend of my family found out nine years ago she had chronic emphysema, which rapidly depleted her already thin lung tissue.

COMMENTARY

Terms used in column not equally comparable

After reading Jessica Byrom's column, "Getting thick skin" (SN 4/10), one particular comparison stood out to me with stomach-wrenching clarity: The better-forgotten incident of Ann Coulter calling John Edwards a "faggot" and Ms. Byrom's following introduction of the term "fundamentalist." The difference between these examples are as vivid as night and day. Ann Coulter, having laughed at her comment immediately afterward, had written that very comment as a deliberate, vicious personal attack on John Edwards.

COMMENTARY

Ruling should spur new auto standard

In a long overdue decision that will greatly impact the future of the automotive industry, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last week that the Environmental Protection Agency has the ability to regulate carbon dioxide emissions under its authority. The 5-4 decision on April 2 aims to correct negligence by the Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, of regulation of carbon dioxide emissions and provides one of the first governmental actions toward recognizing global warming. It would follow from its moniker that the EPA would be the nation's leader in promoting the movement away from dangerously high carbon emissions. But this has not been the case.