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Opinion | 1000

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COMMENTARY

Minor details

For years, cognates, or specialties, have given students the opportunity to explore topics outside of their college. English majors have the chance to explore some seemingly unrelated classes in of crop and soil sciences.

COMMENTARY

Student kidnapping should be warning

Last week, a 21-year-old MSU student was kidnapped. It was nearly 2 a.m. She had been walking with a group of friends but split off from them to walk the last few blocks on Charles Street alone.

COMMENTARY

Correct claims about religion made by Bice

I would like to compliment John Bice on an insightful and clever column ("Religious dogma masked as fun, lighthearted holiday traditions" SN 01/10). In his limited space he manages to quickly demonstrate that many religions assimilate stories from peoples they conquered or that migrated into their culture, shifting them ever so slightly to better fit the current trends in spiritual values. And as Bice suggests, religions both past and present tend to use myths and fairy tales which all have very common themes that address major concerns in human history. Our terror when confronted with our own mortality has led to endless repetitions of some version of eternal life in religious folklore.

COMMENTARY

Man's execution might have been mistake, government didn't listen

I never could quite understand what the big deal was with Stanley "Tookie" Williams. However, he had many big name stars behind him fighting for his life — literally. Jamie Foxx and Snoop Dog were only a couple of big names behind him, and many of the other celebrities fighting for him were also black.

COMMENTARY

ASMSU's conduct at meeting appropriate

I'm a little confused when I see The State News flooded by the same false information repeated by four different people — many of which a simple Facebook search will show are all white males engaged in some way with the group Young Americans for Freedom, or YAF. It's an organization that is ultra-conservative and has repeatedly expressed racist views.

COMMENTARY

Beyond dairy cows

When people hear about MSU, a few instant characteristics come to mind. Namely sports and agriculture. For that reason, it seems fitting that out of the more than $2 million in grants MSU received due to outstanding research, a large part will go toward the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. The agriculture college has expanded to create all different kinds of agriculture including sustainable agriculture, which will receive $384,000 of the granted money.

COMMENTARY

SN lacking women's basketball coverage

As I opened up The State News on Jan. 9, I was very disappointed in what I saw on the front page. Hoping to see an article about the women's basketball team's exciting victory over Rutgers on Saturday as the headline, I was frustrated to see the page dominated by an article about the men's disappointing losses to Wisconsin and Illinois.

COMMENTARY

Voiceless until March

When Virg Bernero became mayor of Lansing, he took a step up from his prior position in the Senate. He became the mayor of Michigan's capital city. But when he left his seat in the Senate, he left an opening that will be costly to fill. With Bernero moving, his seat is open for another candidate.

COMMENTARY

Ideal resolutions

Let's be honest — East Lansing and MSU had some ups and downs in 2005. There was the disturbance/riot/student behavior problem/police-using-too-much-force "incident" in April. There was a City Council election and elections for student representatives that no students showed up for. But it's 2006.

COMMENTARY

Nothing wrong with wording, voters' opinions of MCRI will be ignored

The battle over affirmative action in Michigan and MSU has been controversial from the very beginning. In the past couple of years, speeches from affirmative action opponents and supporters at MSU have led to arguments, heated discussions and calls to the police. Much of this drama has been centered around the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, a ballot proposal that would "ban public institutions from using affirmative action programs that give preferential treatment to groups or individuals based on their race, gender, color, ethnicity or national origin for public employment, education or contracting purposes." The supporters of the initiative gathered enough signatures and submitted them to the Secretary of State, which is the way ballot proposals make it to the voters. But the proposal has been stymied by accusations that the wording is misleading and causes people to think it would do something other than what it does. The Board of State Canvassers has repeatedly refused to certify the signatures, despite an order from the Michigan Court of Appeals that the initiative get placed on the ballot. The board is composed of two Republicans, who, at their last meeting on the issue, voted to certify the petition, while one Democrat voted against it and the other abstained. The meeting became heated and a table was almost overturned in the debate. Affirmative action debates have become a circus in Michigan — betraying the fact that it is such a serious issue that could have long-lasting implications. Accusations that voters were misled is something people should think about when voting in November.

COMMENTARY

ASMSU's 'repulsive' rushing not their job

On Dec. 8, ASMSU, the MSU undergraduate student government, did the most atrocious possible act that Spartans should find repulsive. ASMSU did not have the issue of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, or MCRI, on their agenda; however, it was abruptly put to vote by the council. The MCRI will be on the ballot in the next election and will ban affirmative action if it is passed. Our student council voted on the issue and ended up condemning it.

COMMENTARY

Assembly voted with no discussion of MCRI

The November election is still months away, but it is clear that debate over ballot initiatives already is heating up, most notably the debate surrounding the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, or MCRI. The MSU student body will soon find out that our student government has recently condemned the MCRI.

COMMENTARY

Student government not representing well

I attended the joint ASMSU and Residence Halls Association meeting on Dec. 8 and must say I am appalled by the conduct of some of the student representatives. A covert bill that was not seen by any members of ASMSU and RHA was brought to the floor to be voted on, which called for the organizations to jointly condemn the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative. Not only were efforts to have an open and civil debate quashed, but students from the gallery, myself included, were not permitted to speak.

COMMENTARY

Bugging Americans

Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the issue of violating civil liberties for national security has been widely discussed and argued about. There was the issue of the no-fly list which banned certain people from being able to board airplanes. Then there was the debate about the government looking at what library books people were checking out. Now comes the news that in 2002 President Bush authorized the National Security Agency to use wiretaps on residents to monitor phone calls and e-mails without a court order.

COMMENTARY

Scandals all around

Jack Abramoff, a former political lobbyist, was at the root of a scandal that involved lying, cheating and stealing. On Jan.

COMMENTARY

Religious dogma masked as fun, lighthearted holiday traditions

I enjoy Christmas. For me, it always elicits thoughts about the true "reason for the season," not just the corporate-sponsored shopping orgy it has become. Christmas also reminds me of the value we place on teaching our children critical thinking. The Santa Claus story offers a cute example.