Sunday, April 12, 2026

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Commentary

COMMENTARY

Timing Trouble

While it’s commendable that East Lansing is asking questions about whether there’s a problem with discrimination when buying or renting property in the city, the way city officials are going about it serves only to keep up the appearance of action, instead of getting to the root of any problem. East Lansing hired an outside firm to look into fair-housing issues within the city.

COMMENTARY

Meaning of religion often misunderstood

Wouldn’t it be nice to be a fly on the wall in the corner of eternity, listening to the dialogue going on beyond the Pearly Gates, Valhalla, the Elysian fields, nirvana or whatever name we humans have placed on that land beyond time - the land of everlasting life.

COMMENTARY

Lawful mistake

The Food and Drug Administration’s approval of GHB - more commonly known as the “date-rape drug” - to treat narcolepsy is a big step in the wrong direction. GHB, or gamma hydroxybutyrate, is a drug known to trigger unconsciousness and cause short-term memory loss, which has led to its notorious reputation as a tool to take advantage of women at parties.

COMMENTARY

Inevitable justice

Sexual harassment is no laughing matter in an educational environment - regardless of where that education is taking place. Two male Eastern Michigan University students and a professor’s assistant are accused of sexually harassing six female students while on a 1999 study- abroad trip to South Africa. Although the male students were suspended nearly two years ago, the women, who have since graduated, are suing the school for violating Title IX, the 30-year-old civil rights law prohibiting gender discrimination at schools that receive any federal funding.

COMMENTARY

Radio host leads to deep thoughts on school-voucher possibilities

I have a confession to make: I listen to Rush Limbaugh. Yes, he is loud. Yes, he is obnoxious. Yes, he makes a factual or historical error almost every time a long, convoluted rant emanates from his mouth into the microphone. However, political discourse is interesting, and even if I have to yell or issue a retort to the inanimate boombox sitting on the shelf, I would rather argue with Rush than listen to inane disc jockeys break the limits of vulgarity in between the three songs their station manages to force alongside the commercials each hour. And now, each time I am involved in a discussion about school vouchers, the first person I think about is always Rush “talent-on-loan-from-God” Limbaugh. Please, help me. With it’s recent 5-4 decision upholding a Cleveland school voucher program, the U.S.

COMMENTARY

Scholarship loot valuable to state

Since State News Opinion Editor Drew Harmon, who first endorsed the Healthy Michigan Initiative in an editorial, “Missed Merit,” (SN 7/18), then later admitted that he was in fact, a smoker in his column, “Smokers know it’s bad, leave us in peace,” (SN /18), I will concede, in this spirit of candor, that I am the proud recipient of the sum of $2,500 on account of my passing the 1999 MEAP test.

COMMENTARY

Smoking different, affects everyone

I would like to respond to Drew Harmon column’s “Smokers know it’s bad, leave me in peace” (SN 7/18). While I definitely agree with the whole concept that consistency is needed in our social policies (unhealthy food, unsafe sex or drinking), if it affects other people in a public sense, it is our business. Living in a free society that is confined by laws and politics, we do have the right to take risks without asking other people’s permission, but only if it does not involve having others pay for your actions.

COMMENTARY

Pressure cooker

No one would leave a chocolate bar sitting in their car on a hot day, yet nearly every summer there are reports of children who die because they’re left alone in a vehicle. A Detroit mother is on trial for involuntary manslaughter after her children died in her car.

COMMENTARY

Shady deals

Every week it’s another company, another financial problem, another screw up from the folks up top.

COMMENTARY

Old man river

Kudos to researchers in the MSU-WATER program, or Watershed Action Through Education and Research. The four-year, $1.4 million program designed to develop a watershed management program for the Red Cedar River, is an important effort to undertake, and it is only fitting that it originated at MSU. With the Red Cedar River as one of the foremost landmarks of MSU’s campus, it is important for the university to lead the charge to clean up the historic body of water whose banks it calls home.

COMMENTARY

Missed merit

Student leaders from across Michigan are preparing to join a battle against a November ballot initiative.