Mo' money, mo' bad decisions

Robert Kinnaird ASSISTANT MULTIMEDIA EDITOR

"The financial inequality in the modern day is as bad as it’s been since America’s Gilded Age when the titans of industry were the richest people to ever walk the Earth. Back then, people like John Rockefeller, Milton Hershey and Andrew Carnegie flexed their wealth by opening libraries, starting colleges or opening orphanages. The financial inequality was still an issue back then, but these days our rich people shoot cars into space and spend millions on idiotic shenanigans instead. The theatrical side of the modern rich results in “funny” publicity stunts, but we really need to stop laughing."

Dear gay men, what's the T?

Serena Payne

"“RuPaul’s Drag Race” has invaded the mainstream and opened the world’s eyes to the art form of drag and drag performance. However, RuPaul’s recent interview in The Guardian sparked controversy due to his comments surrounding transgender (trans) drag queens competing on “Drag Race” saying that drag loses its social statement when men are not the ones doing it because “Drag is a big f-you to male-dominated culture.” However, RuPaul, you and other gay men seem to have forgotten something important about drag, mainly the simple fact that you did not create, nor do you own, drag."

Think Again: Debunking the apocalyptic social media myth

Angelica Beneke

"Social media is bad for you. Social media is ruining humanity. Social media is divisive. I’m sure we’ve heard people say this or at least seen headlines about it. Facebook, one of the rulers of social media itself, has also recently admitted that social media poses mental health risks for many of its users. While social media has its downsides, such as easily allowing hate groups to form and flourish like on Steam, this generalization is just way too dangerous ­– especially for people with mental illnesses."

White Women's Herstory Month

Ja'Loni Owens

"For some, the 1st of March is just the first day of “Women’s Herstory Month.” For black women, the 1st of March marks the day we’re expected to shed our brown skin and “choose gender.” The 1st of March marks the date we’re supposed to smile as blackness disappears from bulletin boards, as librarians move the texts by James Baldwin and Maya Angelou to the back, as we recover from being told “choose race” for 28 days only to be told “choose gender” for 31."

Students have the right to protest

Angelica Beneke

"Several superintendents and administrators recently expressed disapproval about the upcoming National Walkout on Wednesday, March 14, including a superintendent of a Texas school district. 

Needville Independent School District Superintendent (IDS) Curtis Rhodes, in a now-deleted Facebook post, said any type of protest or demonstration during school hours will result in a three-day school suspension and all the associated consequences. 

An open letter to President Stuart Rabinowitz

Hofstra YDSA

"Dear Stuart Rabinowitz,

It is long past time we acknowledged that, in spite of Hofstra’s already exorbitant price tag, you are actively dedicated to cheating your students and capitalizing on their basic needs. 

Hofstra University has consistently skimped on providing necessary student services whenever and wherever it can in order to turn a profit."

Think Again: Let them speak: mental health and mass shootings

Angelica Beneke

"It was my freshman year of high school. Nov. 1, 2010. I remember sitting in a row towards the back in the dimly lit theater when the news was announced. One of the seniors had been shot over the weekend at a Halloween house party and died shortly after in Ben Taub Hospital in Houston, Texas. There would be counseling services available throughout the day to anyone who needed them and funeral arrangements would be announced shortly.

Nazis are people too

Chris Gardner

"There is something ironic about an always failing master race. Out of the two major wars fought for white supremacy that come to mind, the “master race” has lost both, and neither of their regimes lasted more than a few decades. Their science is just as flawed as their administrative skill because both are built on a baseless ideology that is not supported by history or biology. I had a professor once say, “Maybe it is not time to humanize Nazis,” as if to keep them in their mythical form as racist dystopian robots. I immediately disagreed on several grounds."

We need gun control before we lose control

Delilah Gray

"As of Feb. 21, there have already been 34 mass shootings in 2018, 18 of which were school shootings, and people still don’t think we need gun control. Hundreds of citizens are now on a mission to finally change the U.S.’s corrupt system after the horrendous shooting in Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. How many more people must die before President Donald Trump realizes that mental illness isn’t the problem, it’s really the overabundance of guns in this country?"

Nazis? More like NAHzis

Gisela Factora - EDITORIAL EDITOR

"The philosopher Karl Popper once described an interesting phenomenon in his 1945 work, “The Open Society and Its Enemies Vol. 1.” Though the work as a whole is incredibly flawed, one concept remains poignant and, now more than ever, relevant: the paradox of tolerance. On this he writes, “If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them. ”

Sessions' racist rhetoric distracts from Trump's administration

Angelica Beneke

"On Feb. 12, Attorney General Jeff Sessions praised the nation’s sheriffs at a National Sheriffs Winter Conference in Washington, calling them a “critical part of the Anglo-American heritage of law enforcement.” As one might imagine, immediate backlash from groups such as the NAACP ensued and accused Sessions of racist rhetoric. Many news outlets such as CNN and NBC were quick to report this unusual term by saying this wasn’t in the prepared remarks. When I saw this, I also thought “Wow, that’s racist.” However, as it turns out, this term is used all the time in legal cases. Another day, another distraction from what the Trump administration is doing behind the scenes."

Participatory democracy requires participation

Chris Gardner

"It was the first year of the Greek Civil War, a conflict that would destroy the nation from the inside out. Pericles, Athens’ elected leader, was giving a eulogy on winter’s day in 431 B.C. for a number of fallen soldiers. He spoke of Athens’ citizens as “fair judges of public matters” and stated that, “unlike any other nation, we regard the citizen who takes no part in these duties not as unambitious but as useless.” He went on to say Athens’ system of government, the political activism and patriotism, made them exceptional. He spoke, of course, of civil responsibility. “In short, I say that as a city we are the School of Hellas.”"

Trump's new budget proposal strips away basic rights

Delilah Gray

"The phrase “What did Donald Trump do now?” has become a common household topic around the country and this week will be no different. Trump recently released his budget plan for 2019, and of course, there’s a sea of red flags within it. So, it’s quite clear with this new bill that he’d rather parade his masculinity through higher budgets for militia and defense instead of facing real problems like the decline of education and informed media. His victims this time: NPR, PBS and our sanity.

America's gun-undrum

Alissa Anderson

On Feb. 14, a former student went into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, and killed 17 people. In response, President Donald Trump tweeted that “no child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school.” That would be a nice sentiment, but the problem is that this was the 18th school shooting in the United States in 2018. The problem is that no one is surprised when these shootings occur. The problem is that nothing ever changes.

It's time for men to stop flirting with women

Joseph Coffey-Slattery - ASSISTANT ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR

The notion that “men should stop flirting with women” is something that will undoubtedly draw immense criticism, as people rationalize that without the action of “flirting,” there would be no people on Earth. “If your father hadn’t at one time approached your mother, you wouldn’t have been born,” they will tell me, a statement that is true but also leaves something out.

The Super Bowl of sentimentality

Angelica Beneke

This past Super Bowl was an incredibly strange one for me. As someone who was raised with American football being blasted on television in the suburban Texas Gulf Coast, and her mother hollering at the television when her team made a horrendous play, I felt like I was betraying my upbringing by simply not caring who won. Even stranger, not even the Super Bowl commercials appealed to me. Well, none of them except the commercials that mentioned Hurricane Harvey relief efforts in passing. This is why whenever natural disaster strikes, we should focus on the mental well-being of others as well as their physical needs. 

Load More