COMMENTARY

Family gives thanks to MSU after dad's death

Last year over several hours, I went through a wonderful, surreal, turbulent and horrifying journey.

COMMENTARY

Register to vote on campus Saturday

Voting is a nonpartisan issue. It doesn't matter if you call yourself a Democrat, Republican, Libertarian or Communist, your vote is still important and necessary to further our democracy. So it is fortunate for MSU students that the Secretary of State will provide a mobile voter registration office on campus Saturday.

COMMENTARY

Receptionists deserve courtesy from director

As a night receptionist for the past three years, I would like to say that I am appalled by Residence Life director Paul Goldblatt's statements regarding the incident in Wilson Hall. Instead of offering even the most meager of sympathies for the student or expressing any well-wishing, Goldblatt shrugs his shoulders and seems content to say, well, this would have happened regardless. Right.

COMMENTARY

Voters' discontent may cost GOP

Sixty-four days and counting. With just about two months left before midterm elections, Republicans appear to be in hot water.

COMMENTARY

Column on morning after pill 'disturbing'

I feel an obligation to respond to the column written by Vanessa Notman, "Contraceptive choices expand, should be available for everyone," (SN 8/30). Her comment stating "there isn't time for morals to get in the way of a woman's choice" might be the most disturbing thing I've ever read. In life, there is always time for morals — regardless of gender.

COMMENTARY

History is important when discussing race

I'm writing in regards to Kyle Jubenville's letter "Katrina response wasn't about race, but poverty," (SN 8/31). People of all races may live in poverty, but it would ignore all facts to say race doesn't have anything to do with it.

COMMENTARY

ID policy only adds steps, doesn't improve safety

As a former night receptionist coordinator at MSU for 2-1/2 years, I feel that I have an obligation to write to express the concerns I have with the new guest check-in process for residence halls.

COMMENTARY

Slow death for tailgating at MSU

Last week, ASMSU announced a revised tailgating policy allowing 100 students to be chosen from a lottery for seasonal tailgating passes. The new policy guarantees season tailgate pass-holders a spot at the tennis courts near Wilson Hall before every home game without entering a weekly lottery or paying a weekly fee.

COMMENTARY

How has Sept. 11 defined us?

It's a question that has been asked repeatedly for the last five years. A question that invokes an eerie sense of loss and confusion.

COMMENTARY

Student candidates for office in 'uphill struggle'

When she commented on Lauren Spencer's Green Party candidacy for the MSU Board of Trustees, it appears that Trustee Dee Cook's 16 years of service don't take her memory back far enough in "'Represent the Students,'" (SN 9/5). In 1976, I was an MSU student, working on a master's degree in sociology and a candidate for the MSU Board of Trustees as a member of the Human Rights Party.

COMMENTARY

Single Business Tax repeal will mean higher tuition

Every student at MSU can lament our tuition costs are high. The Republican-led legislature would like to see them higher; so would Republican gubernatorial-candidate Dick DeVos. Why?

COMMENTARY

Democrats aren't looking out for black Americans

The Democratic Party, which controls more than 90 percent of the black vote, realized long ago that the votes it receives from cities with large black populations have enabled it to stay in power during every major election. For years, these elected officials have been promising to bring relief and liberation to the inner cities of our country, yet it is sad and discouraging to point out with overwhelming evidence that the Democratic Party has done absolutely nothing — let me repeat, NOTHING — to improve the conditions of black America.

COMMENTARY

Prepare to be attacked if you try to corner a dangerous 'animal'

Not too long ago in our painfully stupid political history with President Bush, he made a speech that was so clueless it bordered on ignorant eloquence.

COMMENTARY

Student voice needed on City Council

The East Lansing City Council members have a big decision ahead of them. With Mark Meadows' resignation effective Sept.

COMMENTARY

Single Business Tax repeal should stimulate economy

In addition to shamelessly invoking sophomoric partisan clichés, Andrew Mutavdzija's dire predictions of the effects of repealing the Single Business Tax in his letter "Single Business Tax needed for state funding," (SN 8/29), defy logic and suggest that he lacks even a passing appreciation of economics.

COMMENTARY

Cartoon is wrong; night receptionist not 'bad guy'

I am writing this in response to the editorial cartoon that ran in The State News on Monday concerning the new policy changes to the night receptionist program.

COMMENTARY

Ruling protects checks, balances

Once again, the White House and its mouthpieces are criticizing the judicial branch for ruling against a Bush policy; this time it's their warrantless wiretapping program. U.S.

COMMENTARY

More green space, bus lines needed on campus

Sadly, MSU has moved further away from the "Green Campus" it could be. For years, MSU has been building large, beautiful parking ramps, doing all it can to make it easier for cars and SUVs to dominate campus.

COMMENTARY

Candidate opens mouth, inserts foot

On Aug. 24, U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris said a few interesting things. She said the separation of church and state is "a lie we have been told," "God is the one who chooses our rulers," and "if you're not electing Christians, then in essence you are going to legislate sin." The fact that Harris, a senatorial candidate for the 13th Congressional District in Florida, has demonstrated such blatant ignorance of the Constitution and the very ideals on which this country was founded is appalling. To its credit, the Republican Party has made endeavors to distance itself from Harris.

COMMENTARY

Energy could be Mich.'s future

Gov. Jennifer Granholm introduced a new plan on Tuesday to improve the environment while boosting Michigan's economy. The governor said a $250,000 grant program will be used to either produce new or convert old pumps into what she hopes will be 1,000 alternative fuel pumps by 2008. In order to initiate this new form of environmentally friendly fuel and make it a feasible option for people to access, government support is necessary. Granholm is doing an exceptional job encouraging and introducing this new fuel option to our state. Just this July, she signed a bill that lowered the state tax for both ethanol fuel and biodiesel fuel.