Saturday, January 3, 2026

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Opinion | 1000

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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.

COMMENTARY

Plenty of potty

Women often are flushed with indignation about public bathrooms. There just aren’t enough places to answer nature’s call. For years, men have enjoyed the in-and-out nature of their bathrooms and biology, but women, generally, need more time and space.

COMMENTARY

Lawful cussing

Few people today probably think the 1897 Michigan law against cursing in front of women and children was worth being enforced.

COMMENTARY

Right to privacy can extend to public photos, pictures should not be published

As I am not a woman, I cannot be totally sure of the impact an abortion can have on someone. Whether it is emotional, mental or physical, I’m sure there must be some level of effect on the woman having the procedure. And as if this and the procedure itself aren’t traumatizing enough, she also must go up against the pro-life activists. These activists block entrances, hound and shout at patrons - basically doing everything in their power short of physically assaulting women to get them to change their minds.

COMMENTARY

Dont be upset at corporate fat-cats, we all lie all the time anyway

I’m sure everyone is sick of reading columns on the Pledge of Allegiance by now, so today I’m going to talk about something else that has ties to religion - ethics. I know that sounds like a boring subject, but given recent headlines showcasing shady accounting practices, and now a lawsuit, against Vice President Dick Cheney and the oil company he ran for five years, I think it’s worth some discussion. President George W.

COMMENTARY

Research before voting necessary

Kristofer Karol, in his column “Being patriotic means more than buying a flag; public displays infuriating,” (SN 7/11), raises an excellent point about “false” patriots.

COMMENTARY

Minimum mess

Mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes haven’t solved the drug problem we face. It’s time Michigan began to use a more balanced system to reform drug users. Many times, incarceration has been the only option for these drug-related crimes, and treatment is not given enough consideration, possibly sending people to prison when rehabilitation would be much better suited to their case.

COMMENTARY

Butterfly House will be a sad loss

It was with sadness that I read about the closing of the Butterfly House. These kinds of choices by MSU administration will come back to bite them in the rear end when future MSU alumni have fewer and fewer special extracurricular moments to look back on, as they hold pen and checkbook in hand, trying to justify their contribution to the annual fund-raising campaign.

COMMENTARY

Flown butterflies

It is undeniable: MSU’s campus is beautiful. On any given summer day, students can wander through numerous gardens, listen to the bells toll from Beaumont Tower or sit under the shade of a mighty tree. All of these aesthetic extras are important to our campus.

COMMENTARY

Students have good reasons for apathy

I do agree there is a real passiveness among our young people when it comes to voting. In spite of this, I must disagree with Kristofer Karol’s column “Being patriotic means more than buying a flag; public displays infuriating” (SN 7/11), that this is because of pure laziness.

COMMENTARY

Being patriotic means more than buying a flag; public displays infuriating

I don’t get stomachaches much anymore, except from the occasional “scrumptious” dorm meal, but the pain in my abdomen grew larger than a water-laden shrinky-dink when I was at Lansing’s 2002 Fourth of July parade. Now, I’m not a commie, but seeing all of the proud citizens waving their little flags and watching the parade with admiration made me sick to my stomach.

COMMENTARY

Consumer beware, gadgets all designed to raid pockets

Blah blah blah, the Pledge of Allegiance and so forth. I’m sure every other columnist over the last couple of weeks has more than addressed every possible viewpoint that you’d care to read, so I’m going to bring up something just as insightful.

COMMENTARY

Lost lifeguarding

One drowning and another near drowning in the span of three days is more than enough turn the heads of area residents and park commissioners - and rightfully it has. An 11-year-old boy drowned Saturday at the Grand River’s Bunker Road Landing, and Mohammad Sohaib Fida, 13, nearly drowned July 4 at Lake Lansing Park South.