Monday, November 11, 2024

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Commentary

COMMENTARY

Air it, ASMSU

East Lansing, Meridian Township and other surrounding cities do it. And if everyone's doing it, why shouldn't we? ASMSU Director Vikas Menon has been looking into broadcasting assembly meetings on campus cable.

COMMENTARY

Elect responsible, pro-life candidates

As a woman, the issue of abortion is not only personally important, it is a huge voting issue. In the upcoming year, and as primaries roll around, it will become tantamount to the presidential elections - especially as the next president will undoubtedly appoint at least one Supreme Court justice. We have the choice to elect stalwart advocates for women and life to office.

COMMENTARY

Iowa caucus a joke; Dean still the man

We've all learned that Iowa's caucus is a horrible farce. Any voting system that asks people to come in and express their initial support but then allows candidates' supporters to collude, to cajole neighbors and to have a "redo" in order to fix the results is not a democracy.

COMMENTARY

Paying dues

Political initiatives on the federal and state levels are asking citizens and lawmakers to adopt a more pragmatic concept of what "separation of church and state" really means. Most recently, a package of bills passed by the state Senate - and expected not to be contested by Gov.

COMMENTARY

Thanking 'U' for all they do on campus

Returning to campus, I took some extra time to observe the people here and the buildings. Mostly, however, what struck me was the large number of people that make it possible for us students to be here and pursue our careers in such an elite environment.

COMMENTARY

Patient policy

In the critically acclaimed 1999 movie "Boys Don't Cry," Hilary Swank plays a girl whose life is ripped apart by betrayal, rape and murder because she identifies as a man.

COMMENTARY

Bad Bush!

When George W. Bush was still the governor of Texas in 2000, months away from being elected the 43rd president of the United States of America, he sat opposite David Letterman in the Ed Sullivan Theater and said, "I'm a uniter, not a divider." It's now abundantly clear as we step into the next presidential race that the United States of America is more politically, socially and ideologically divided than it has been in decades. Concurrently, in Tuesday night's State of the Union address, Bush had the opportunity to quell the fear that many Americans have of a nation being torn asunder by differences in politics.

COMMENTARY

No faith needed to support evolution

Jamin T. Villarreal has created a false idea of what "evolution" is and proceeds to knock down his own caricature of the science ("Scientists base claims on faith, too" SN 1/15). I am a science educator and researcher, and it is because of my concern for this type of ignorance that I write to you today. The study of evolution is no more based on faith than is the study of the solar system.

COMMENTARY

Newspaper underplayed Sparty's win

When I picked up The State News this morning and glanced at the top of the first page, I noticed "Sparty time: 'U' mascot named top in country (SN 1/21)." I was so excited to rip open the paper and read an article all about how and where he had won.

COMMENTARY

Capitalism leads to advances, liberty

In one sentence, Craig Gunn promotes the beheading of Bill Gates because he's wealthy, and in the next, he states he has "nothing against capitalism." Gunn ("TV shows glamorizing wealthy pushes over-consumption") claims we have the right to "earn money, and spend it any way we desire," unless we earn too much. Unfortunately, Gunn fails to identify who gets to decide how much is too much and how it will be stopped.

COMMENTARY

Smokin'

It was a banner year at the Bender household when troubled high-schooler John Bender received his Christmas gift from his father: a carton of cigarettes. "Smoke up, Johnny!" the elder Bender said, as told in John Hughes' seminal 1985 work "The Breakfast Club." If legislation introduced by Michigan state Sen.