COMMENTARY
Cartoon offensive to LBGT community
Several of my students, who are lesbian and gay, were deeply upset by the cartoon you chose to run on Monday, Feb.
COMMENTARY
Granholm needs to work for equality
You said it yourself, Gov. Jennifer Granholm: "... I think this is right - that marriage is between a man and a woman" ("Granholm announces opposition" SN 2/24). Now, you have to back that statement up, and to facilitate your explanation, I'll list a few excuses you could use.
COMMENTARY
3rd-party choices represent millions
In response to "Not again, Nader" (SN 2/23), this might sound blunt, but it's what many Americans have been thinking for decades: Al Gore and the Democratic Party have only themselves to blame for losing the 2000 election, not Ralph Nader.
COMMENTARY
Application action
The Ohio State University and the University of Michigan might be less diverse places to go to school when the fall semester rolls around.
COMMENTARY
CALM acronym will make everything OK
No one should worry about the proposed college restructuring. Everything will work out for the best.
COMMENTARY
Born leaders
In "Kindergarten Cop," California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wanted to know, "Who is your daddy, and what does he do?" Arnie's children can say without a trace of satire that their Austrian-born, Predator-hunting father is, in fact, the governor of the Golden State.
COMMENTARY
Death penalty the right punishment
After reading the editorial in The State News on Monday morning, I could not believe what I was reading ("Stop it" SN 2/23). It literally made me sick to my stomach.
COMMENTARY
Nader needs new hobby; running for president getting old
Ralph Nader, you ignorant slut. Like the nerd at a party, he's done it once again. As announced Sunday morning, Nader is running as an independent candidate for the presidency.
COMMENTARY
Minority support needed, fights KKK
The article "Affirmative action group disagrees with petition" (SN 2/20) brought some disturbing news to my attention.
COMMENTARY
Some things are meant to offend, get reaction from society
When you discuss controversial issues in the newspaper, you get a wide range of emotions in return. Today's editorial cartoon is a good example of that. People will write letters or e-mail or call our newsroom wondering how I, as an editor, could print something like today's cartoon and how we could casually use a word as vulgar and offensive as "fags." I assure you, its use on today's Opinion page is anything but casual.
COMMENTARY
Restructuring hurts liberal arts classes
Here is a short summary of "Realizing the Vision: Liberal Arts in the 21st Century Land-Grant University." Though there will no longer be classes in which questions about citizenship, policy or the self can be asked, the university resolves to help each student understand better what it means to be human; to develop the intellectual, creative and productive capacities to be an educated and engaged citizen; and, therefore, to be able to contribute more fully to professional, civic, cultural and community life. Though the university plans to eliminate the college in which the humanities exist, it anticipates the strengthening of graduate programs through synergy. Though undergraduate classes now will be larger and thus unable to contain a writing component, the university thinks a student could reach an understanding about "what it means to be human" through a multiple-choice test and a class taught by more temporary faculty.
COMMENTARY
Four years of Bush leaves world divided
Think back to the last presidential campaign. What a difference four years make, don't they? Remember how, back then, it seemed more like a competition to be the most boring, inoffensive candidate possible?
COMMENTARY
Lower prices mean more caf business
I would like to thank the Division of Housing and Food Services for the coupon it placed in my mailbox for a free meal.
COMMENTARY
Nation should allow same-sex marriage
As a nation, are we bored? I am beginning to doubt that the national pastime is actually baseball. I think we should finally admit that picking on every nonwhite, non-heterosexual, non-Christian, non-middle- or upper-class, non-able-bodied person we can find is really what we crave. As a nation, we are willing to bomb, destroy and terrorize other countries in the name of freedom, but at home we are unwilling to grant the freedom of love to anyone who is not heterosexual.
COMMENTARY
Packing of programs creates long names
MSU has a unit whose name is the Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic, Asian and African Languages. It will presumably become part of the new College of Communication, Arts, Languages and Media.
COMMENTARY
Not again, Nader
Go home, Ralph Nader. This might sound blunt, it might be mean, but it's exactly what most Democrats were thinking Sunday morning when environmental activist and consumer advocate Nader announced he was running for president as an independent.
COMMENTARY
Stop it
Mahatma Gahndi once wrote, "An eye for an eye and soon the world will be blind." Vengeance is an inescapable aspect of the human psyche.
COMMENTARY
Apartment living not all good; dorm life has major benefits
If there are two simple things I've learned in my three and a half years at MSU, they are that convenience and community are indelible. In order to understand where I'm headed with the ensuing tirade, I must first digress.
COMMENTARY
Slow down
Two weeks is the perfect amount of time to do a lot of things. Wimbledon, a long vacation, even a two-week seminar on something.
COMMENTARY
College shuffle has too many questions
I am writing in response to the article "Provost to release blueprint" (SN 2/18). The re-envisioning of the liberal arts and sciences by Michigan State University leadership may indeed by a necessary step in keeping MSU competitive and serving of the citizens of Michigan.