Saturday, April 4, 2026

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Commentary

COMMENTARY

Group's removal was not warranted

ASMSU passed a bill Friday removing Great Issues, a group from its programming board, after an argument about a speaker the group paid to visit MSU. The speaker, Joe Carr, reportedly made anti-Semitic and other hate speech comments last year, spurring the Jewish Students Union and the Arab Cultural Society to introduce a bill calling for the removal of Great Issues from the undergraduate student government. After a meeting that wore on until after 2 a.m., ASMSU's Student Assembly removed the group for bringing "events which actually promote mistrust, hatred and even violence toward minorities on campus," the bill stated. Great Issues was a 17-member facet of the programing board.

COMMENTARY

Anti-abortion advocates labeled uncool, columnist feels detached

It's no secret that anti-abortion proponents are a spectacularly uncool group of people. Statistically speaking, outside of "American Idol" enthusiasts and motorists with "Love Wins" bumper stickers, pro-lifers rank among the most uncool segments of the American population. "Jay and Silent Bob" creator Kevin Smith can't write a movie script without satirizing a pro-life character.

COMMENTARY

Column is speculation on what happened in Boston

I am writing in response to Pete Nichols' opinion piece, "Bomb scare points out country's susceptibility for overreaction" (SN 2/5), about the city of Boston's reaction to the ill-planned marketing efforts of Turner Broadcasting System Inc. I am an MSU alumnus now living in Boston.

COMMENTARY

Candidate will be great leader for Republicans

Thank you for your coverage of Steve Japinga's campaign for chairman of the Michigan Federation of College Republicans, or MFCR, in "Preparing to run for political office" (SN 2/5). Japinga is going to be a fantastic chairman of this important group. Japinga represents a remarkable MSU story.

COMMENTARY

More students should run for ASMSU

As we enter ASMSU's election season, the organization has 32 vacant seats — leaving every MSU college except James Madison and Social Science underrepresented in the Student and Academic assemblies.

COMMENTARY

Writer's counterpoint demeaning, hypocritical

I must say that Alex Lishinski wrote an interesting criticism about people of faith in his letter to The State News, "Belief in god wasteful, necessitates blind faith" (SN 2/1). A letter in which he completely degrades anyone who isn't as socially enlightened as he has proclaimed himself to be.

COMMENTARY

Same-sex partners deserve benefits

Another blow was delivered to same-sex couples Friday, with the state court's decision to ban same-sex health care benefits. The ruling follows the state constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage from the 2004 election — it passed with 59 percent of the vote. According to the court, when Michigan voters approved the ban on gay marriages, they also banned domestic partner benefits as well. During the run-up to the election, proponents of the gay marriage ban stated early and often that same-sex couples retain all the rights afforded to them.

COMMENTARY

Definition of marriage should not be based on sexual orientation

With every issue I have an opinion about, I make a concerted effort to understand those who disagree with me — their motives, feelings, reasons — because without mutual understanding, I do not believe problems can really be resolved or gaps ever bridged. However, there are a few issues of which I truly do not understand the "other side." I try, but I cannot seem to find a common ground on which I agree with, or at least understand and appreciate, the views of those who disagree with my opinion.

COMMENTARY

Christianity doesn't need column to incite reaction

Much has been written lately in The State News about atheism and Christianity. To me, Christianity and atheism are like two bars of metal. The surface of the atheistic bar is golden, shiny and aesthetically pleasing while the Christian bar appears soiled, dirty and unattractive.

COMMENTARY

2008 presidential election could break through 'marble ceiling'

If you followed the 2006 elections, you witnessed a few "ceilings" fall. If you watch the 2008 presidential election, you'll hopefully see what's left of the "marble ceiling" crash to the ground. As Nancy Pelosi, the first female speaker of the House in United States history, so proudly proclaimed after the Democratic majority took over, "for our daughters and our granddaughters, today we have broken the marble ceiling." The United States is unmatched in political inequality in terms of racial and gender under-representation.

COMMENTARY

Attend student commission meetings

The University Student Commission, or USC, of East Lansing serves as a venue for students to gather together and express their viewpoints on the policies and legislation in the city.