It can be easy to feel like the war America is currently involved in is far away. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to gain a better understanding of the conflict. For most of us, the war in Iraq doesn't drastically affect our daily lives.
On April 19, members of Phi Tau Mu — a transgender organization on campus — as well as a number of allied activists participated in what was dubbed a "bathroom crawl." The point of the event was to raise awareness about issues surrounding gender identity.
Anyone who drives a car and lives in East Lansing knows how difficult it can be to find a place to park in this city. Especially in the neighborhoods. A colleague of mine recently reminded me of how hard parking can be and how the city often makes it a lot harder. He had a friend staying over at his house and wanted to call the East Lansing Police Department to have his friend's license plate number put on a list so he could park his car in the street and not get a ticket. It was something he had done before and was surprised to find out that he couldn't. I called East Lansing police Capt.
In the past few weeks, my friends and I have been scolded, reprimanded and harassed for doing the one thing I love the most: skateboarding. In each case, both on and off campus, we are treated as children and criminals at the same time. Police officers rarely have the respect to get out of their vehicles when talking to us, and drunkards in downtown East Lansing continually shout, "Do a 900!" from a distance.
I can't say that I have ever had the displeasure of reading a column by John Bice, but I can say that I am thankful I will never have to again. I was perturbed, and downright outraged, at his column "Criticism warranted when any group forces its beliefs on others" (SN 4/17). If Bice had been raised Christian and was a true follower, he would understand that sharing one's faith is a basic tenant of Christianity. Christians do have the "intention of pushing their faith-based values on others." We are taught that not sharing your faith is like wasting a gift, one that everyone is entitled to and needs to know about.
In the fall of 2002, I wrote my first State News opinion column, "Religious majority doesn't understand atheist views" (SN 11/26/02). The lack of unapologetically secular and atheist perspectives in the mainstream press, especially at a time of increasing religious fundamentalism, motivated me to write. I'm appreciative to The State News for allowing me to articulate a minority and largely unwelcome viewpoint.
For transgender individuals, choosing which bathroom to go into can be a dilemma. Do they go in the bathroom they are biologically assigned to?
The neo-Nazis drew a lot of media coverage for their visit to the Capitol this weekend. And they drew a lot of protesters too. Everything the neo-Nazis represent is despicable and backward.
Balancing a city budget can be a tricky process. Lansing is learning that the hard way as Mayor Virg Bernero and City Council members struggle to eliminate an $11-million budget deficit.
I was very disappointed by the recent article on Take Back the Night, "Common cause" (SN 4/12). To be clear, it is not an event about sexual violence that happens to focus on women — it is an event about violence against women that focuses on sexual violence. In no way do I want to diminish the effect that sexual violence has on men, whether they are survivors or co-survivors, nor do I want to imply that there is no space for men in Take Back the Night. Men have been participating in the event for a long time. However, it is irresponsible for The State News to print an article that entirely focuses on men. Take Back the Night is not solely about how men need to be involved in preventing sexual violence. They do.
In Chuck Wynn's recent column, "Possible New Testament changes don't ruin meanings" (SN 4/20), he argues that the errors, pointed out by John Bice's, "'Truth' of Bible can't be believed with history of additions, deletions" (SN 2/21), in the New Testament do not change any major doctrine. Although this might be true, I think the author might have missed one of Bice's more important points: the dangers of biblical literalism. There are individuals who say women should sit aside while men do all the talking about God, based on Timothy 2:12, a highly contested New Testament epistle. Biblical literalists, the same people who argue that every word of the Bible is as it was when God inspired it, claim that these cannot be read as anything but true, hard facts and that God doesn't want women to teach. The recent Lads to Leaders & Leaderettes conference, run by fundamentalist religious organizations, won't even allow fathers into the room to hear their daughters speak about the Bible because girls should only speak about it to other women.
The feud of city residents versus MSU students is one East Lansing rivalry that has nothing to do with wolverines. Although a rocky relationship between college students and East Lansing homeowners might seem accurate — it's actually not as bad as it seems. Families or individuals who choose to live and buy houses in East Lansing are undoubtedly aware of MSU and the fact that a large portion of East Lansing's population is composed of students. But having a compromising attitude from both perspectives is essential in a cooperative relationship. Students have to understand a property owner's perspective, and vice versa.
For about a week now, many in the MSU community have expressed their views in letters to the editor about the Nazi rally. Some have said that Nazis have the right to free speech and should just be ignored.
Take Back The Night is an annual event at MSU as part of a broader, international movement to help raise awareness about sexual assault, domestic violence and other violence against women. Marches have been held as far back as the 1970s and were often spearheaded by the radical feminist movement.
Supplying information about current events, trends, issues and people to the public is no easy task.
Recently there's been a vigorous discussion regarding the reliability of the Bible in general and the New Testament in particular.
Equality is the overarching basis of the freedoms we enjoy in this country. Without equal status before the law our legal system is perverted and our lawmakers are allowed to govern according to their own whims, fears and prejudices.
ASMSU has been given the power to choose student representatives for academic committees. Now MSU's undergraduate student government needs to make sure they're using that power to increase student involvement on those committees. The MSU Board of Trustees approved the measure on April 13 to let ASMSU choose representatives to the committees, which are part of the Academic Governance system, instead of faculty.
I am writing this letter in regard to the unfortunate problems this university has been facing with diversity.
To add to the long list of MSU parking gripes — where is our ticket money going? In "Showdown at the meter" (SN 2/28), we are told the money from parking tickets stays in the department and is used for repairs, maintenance, etc; however, the Shaw Ramp is in need of some attention. As a business student who lives off campus, I drive to class quite often and mostly park in the Shaw Ramp.