Letters
Letters to the editor
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Letters to the editor
Let’s not be excited about one month – the shortest month of the year – in which the country pretends to care about all aspects of the black race.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>I couldn’t help but notice that the last 30 percent of your article titled “Are you better off now?” puts blame on President Bush for “simple quality-of-life issues.”This doesn’t seem to be appropriate for an article that addresses things like Enron, WorldCom and economic crises. My belief is that a significant portion of the past decade’s devastating events occurred thanks to our new and far from improved president, who is responsible for most of a national debt of around $12 trillion.Do you really “anticipate that in 2020 I can say ‘I am better off now than I was 10 years ago’?”I say quite the contrary.I have a 9-month-old son, and my concern for him is that the policies of the current administration have the potential to make his future more difficult than it ever could have been otherwise.I disagreed with President Bush all too often; however, as a graduate student in optometry, I’d like to at least think of myself as a critical thinker, and I believe the true problem with the past decade is not how we handled the beginning but how we let it end. The true issues at hand lie in our national debt and universal health care.On a similar note, many of the complaints I used to hear about Bush was our continued involvement in Iraq; however, no one seems to be too upset that in November 2009 our U.S. troop count in Iraq was 115,000 even though every other country had pulled out.At this point, I don’t even know why Bush is being discussed. In my mind, Obama has eclipsed everything that has happened this decade with the exception of 9/11.Daniel GalleIU graduate student
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>While many of the stereotypes you made in your opinion piece about the South might be true, you should do a little bit more research before slamming an entire region of the United States.While, yes, the south has some ridiculous ideologies when it comes to religion, growing up in the South for the past 21 years has made me appreciate where I come from. I was raised in a household with a Methodist mother and Jewish father and raised Jewish.While you cringe at the “slow” southern drawl, I love and welcome it, and especially love hearing it while going to a real tailgate at schools like University of Georgia, University of Alabama or even Vanderbilt. The girls wear sun dresses, high heels and pearls and know just as much about football as the boys do. They dress to impress and carry themselves with class, unlike the girls of the Midwest and Northeast region.While these “slow” drawls might not sound good to you, they never scared away great minds like William Faulkner, Zora Neale Hurston, Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote, Harper Lee or Cormac McCarthy, to name just a few of the great literary minds. How many presidents were brought up in the south during the last 40 years? Four different men from the South held the oval office for more than six terms.Speaking of politics, you felt the need to mention Sen. John Edwards’ affair to support the claim that southern Republicans can not be trusted. All I need to say is: Rod Blagojevich, Eliot Spitzer, Bob Taft and Rick Renzi. If you don’t know who they are, then be a real journalist and do your research.The Confederate flag is no longer a sign of discrimination or hate. While those from regions other than the South might think differently, I proudly hang my Confederate flag in my room, not because I hate blacks or any other race or culture, but because I like to show my southern pride at a university over run with girls wearing leggings and UGG boots, and guys wearing graphic tees and hair gel that keeps even the winds in Chicago at bay.Go ahead and get rid of the South, but in doing so you lose St. Augustine, Fla., the first town in U.S. history. You would rid yourself of the best collegiate football conference, the Southeastern Conference (SEC) – four straight Bowl Championship Series titles have gone to teams in the SEC. You would also rid yourself of the best athletes that come from the South, year after year. Rock ‘n’ roll originated largely in the south as well, Elvis, Ray Charles, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, The Allman Brothers Band and countless others. Many of the best movies ever made were set in the south – “Gone With the Wind”, “Driving Miss Daisy”, “Deliverance”. And the food from the South is much better than the bland food I’ve found in the Midwest (fried chicken, green beans, Cajun food, BBQ).Elliott ScokinIU junior
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The other day I read your column titled “The South’s going to do it again.” It is a shame that you believe that my fellow southerners and I are “douche bags.”Since when are the wholesome values and lifestyles that we lead outdated ideas on religion and politics? Is it outdated that I am a southern gentleman? I guess chivalry really is dead north of the Mason-Dixon Line. We still practice it down south, though. Maybe we aren’t “douche bags.” You said there are an overabundance of adult bookstore billboards. Interesting you say that because I just drove here from Texas last Saturday and did not see any.It’s sad you don’t like our accents. We love them, though. It is OK if you don’t like the sound of a beautiful southern belle’s voice because she isn’t going to want to talk to you anyway when you’re not treating her with the respect we treat our women with down south. We might not agree with you on the stances that you have toward evolution and global warming, but isn’t that what America is all about?Aren’t we as Americans supposed to embrace the differences in beliefs? You wouldn’t know coming from Montreal. Finally, we may have social problems in the South. Our schools might be slacking, and our health might not be up to par with our neighbors to the north. However, we don’t go begging the federal government for help. We deal with our problems ourselves. I really feel sorry for you that you had to say such hateful things about us.We live peaceful, slow-paced lives, and we really don’t mind what you say about us or how you live your life. We are going to continue to do what we’ve always done and be the southerners that we are; friendly, wholesome and down-to-earth.Justin GoldsteinIU sophomore
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The January 12th editorial “Health care takes precedence” cites a figure of 47 million uninsured Americans. This oft-quoted statistic is actually a gross overestimation of the problem, as recent research suggests the number of Americans who cannot currently afford health insurance is much lower.A new study by Dr. June O’Neill, who served as director of the Congressional Budget Office from 1995-1999, shows that nearly half of those uninsured Americans could likely afford to purchase health coverage. The average “voluntarily uninsured” household makes $65,000 per year.We should not rush into the creation of a new, expensive health care system without a better understanding of the uninsured population. As long as we continue basing our arguments on inaccurate numbers, it’s hard to see how we can make effective policy decisions.Kristen Lopez EastlickSenior Economic Analyst, Employment Policies Institute, Washinton, D.C.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>I just read your article entitled “New research highlights health benefits of having sex.” It is an abomination for several reasons.First, the article promotes a completely self-centered view of sex, in which one’s own personal health concerns are the biggest issue, as if we need one more justification for our culture’s obsession with sexual immorality.Sex is relational, and it is meant to be contained within a covenantal marriage that honors God in its purity. It was designed by God to be an intimate representation of the covenant bond that God has made with His people. And the bond between a husband and wife is to represent the love that there is between Jesus Christ and the universal Christian Church, his bride.Sex is about giving to one’s spouse, not about our own personal benefits from it. If all we focus on is our own pleasure and health, we will never be satisfied because our fleshly pleasure is a bottomless pit, and no matter how healthy we are, we will die.Sex-crazed college students don’t need to be told that “sex is good for your health, too!” It is not a surprising fact, and it will not change how college students are currently acting. So, the article is completely useless in all respects, except for one – that it validates young people (who call themselves adults) in their sinful lifestyles of fornication, adultery, pornography, homosexuality and masturbation.Second, the article ended with the warnings of Jennifer Bass, director of communications for the Kinsey Institute, that we should “be wary of generalized claims.” The title of this article, “New research highlights health benefits of having sex,” is just that – a generalized claim. Because of the nature of the article’s exploitation of a general scientific claim, it only serves to prove Bass’ earlier statement, “Sex sells. News media love to pick up on things like this and jump to conclusions that maybe even the researcher hasn’t come to.”Well, maybe [the author] didn’t realize this, but [she] condemned [her]self and the Indiana Daily Student by including this quote in the article. The article is useless and offensive, but I’m sure people read it because the word “SEX” was printed in 400 pt. font at the top, on the front page.Alex McNeillyIU junior
Guest Column - Sara Richart is an IU senior writing her creative nonfiction honors thesis about her time in the D.R.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The IU community should be disturbed by a blog-post by IU business professor Eric Rasmusen titled “The Standard for Assistant Profs at the IU Dept. of English.” This article, which appeared on Rasmusen’s personal blog, criticized IU English for not hiring enough professors who have earned a Ph.D.He has since removed the blog post due to the inflammatory comments it received, but I still find his attitude toward the English faculty to be offensive.Rasmusen wrote that he was “surprised” to learn that the late assistant professor of English Don Belton was teaching at IU with only an M.A. from Hollins College. He proceeds to list other professors in the department whose degrees are also M.A.s or M.F.As. To this, I would remind Rasmusen that in academia, Ph.D.s in creative writing do not exist.Most professors of creative writing at IU hold an M.F.A., which is the highest degree offered in the field. That Rasmusen has overlooked this fact, which should alone discredit the entire post, is a good indication of the level of sophistication of his advice to the English department.Rasmusen’s proposal begins with the presupposition that creative writing (meaning all literature ranging from fiction to poetry to drama) is not the sort of writing that “people actually read.” He is preoccupied with the idea that such work is produced by an elite corps of specialists and catered to an elite group of artists and critics. But Rasmusen forgets that “creative writing” can be found in places far from the literary journals he is likely talking about. On the contrary, creative writing probably reaches a wider audience than writing in most academic fields – including his own, business. The “Twilight” series was written by a creative writer. So was “Harry Potter.” Do these novels also look like “esoteric writing” to professor Rasmusen?I began by saying that IU should be appalled by Rasmusen’s post (other than his insensitive timing to criticize Belton). To this point, I have outlined nothing which could be deemed so.But, I have also not mentioned the most problematic and questionable moment in his post, which is this: In the process of listing professors of creative writing, ostensibly for the purpose of highlighting their lack of qualification as a non-Ph.D., Rasmusen has in select cases added to his description of professors’ racial labels.To quote his post, Don Belton and Ross Gay are listed as “black,” and Debra Kang Dean as “Korean-American, it looks like.”One professor, Alyce Miller, is listed as “NOT black” (capitalization is his). Rasmusen gives no racial description when the professors he is referring to are light-skinned. He gives no indication for why he affixes these labels when he does so, but in the moment where he wants to make clear that one professor is “NOT black” he is walking on incredibly thin ice.Since Rasmusen wants to critique hiring practices, I will too: the Kelley School of Business should be curious to know why one of its professors is critiquing English professors with some sort of racial bent. E-mail: jwslabau@indiana.edu
I know I am not the only person losing a friend to the allure of exotic places and interesting people. We are in college; classmates study abroad all the time. Siblings, significant others and best friends constantly deal with distance. I do not think I am the first person to worry about a relationship shift. So until I can be the one packing my bags for a foreign country, (Buenos Aires, here I come) I will have to figure out a way to come to terms with circumstances out of my control, just like everyone else.
It’s 2010 and there is a conflict in America – the conflict between the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RNR HOF) and rock ’n’ roll fans. The fans have been complaining about the lack of hard rock and heavy metal bands being inducted in favor of acts that are the furthest thing from rock ‘n’ roll, like Madonna and ABBA.
So many people believe words such as male, masculine and man or female, feminine and woman are synonymous. The pronouns for all three are the same: he or she. But there are many who do not fit so easily into this binary construction.
Before 2009, there was only one method of waste disposal in the Indiana Memorial Union kitchens: the dumpster. Now, because of initiatives set in place by Nora Kayden, a sustainability intern at IU, hundreds of pounds of waste become useful resources instead of trash.
America is at a crossroads as we face a cooling economy and a warming world. The solution is investing in new, clean energy for America, which can strengthen our economy, put people back to work, reduce our dependence on dirty oil and coal and tackle climate change.
Although I like to think of IU and its students as environmentally friendly and forward-thinking, we still depend on a large coal-burning power plant for our energy. Even more surprising is the fact that many students have no idea that there is a coal power plant on campus.
Repealing the McCarran-Ferguson Act act would make it much easier for health companies to become part of the market. Getting rid of this anti-trust exemption is something that people from each end of the political spectrum should be able to agree on.
Iran’s continued refusal to cease nuclear development undermines the United States’ efforts to strengthen moderate Arab nations, as well as endangering the security of our allies in the Middle East.
The goal of expanding the existing campus meal plan to include the Indiana Memorial Union and Wells Library is simple: providing students a choice in where they can use their campus meal plan.
The goal of expanding existing campus meal plans to include the Indiana Memorial Union and Wells Library is simple: providing students a choice in where they can use their campus meal plan. Student dissatisfaction and frustrations have persisted for years due to the lack of options. It is time for a change.
I appreciate the time RHA has taken to make an informed decision on behalf of all residents. I took part in a committee that addressed the proposal for meal points in the Union.