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(05/03/16 6:42am)
Recent polls suggest there is a large consensus building in America for increased military intervention in Syria and Iraq. Fifty-three percent of Americans support “boots on the ground” in Iraq and Syria. Sixty-eight percent of Americans believe we have not been aggressive enough in our military response to ISIS. Fifty-five percent of Americans hold an “unfavorable” opinion of Islam. The results from these polls point to the existence of large hypocrisies in American policy that create negative feedback mechanisms for more terrorism; a force-based approach to statebuilding and conflict resolution; and a fundamental misunderstanding of Islam and the nature of the conflicts occurring in Syria and Iraq.
(04/20/16 4:25am)
In a recent column titled “The lessons of French labor law,” my fellow columnist Ryan Gorman lambasted the French left for being “misguided in its attacks on the reforms” currently happening in France. However, Gorman uses subversive language that perpetuates stereotypes and omits relevant factors of French society that influence how French people view business and capitalism.
(04/05/16 4:07am)
The dread from having two tests on the same day or a paper and a test is a feeling we students know too well. However, this is an unnecessary and meaningless struggle that teaches no lessons and doesn’t prepare students for the real world. Professors and University institutions need to recognize that these arbitrary decisions they make have enormous consequences for the emotional and mental health of students. Flexibility on test-taking needs to be instituted to reduce stress, reorient the focus on learning and promote the general well-being of students.
(03/29/16 4:15am)
Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world both in terms of size and population. It is also the largest economy in South America. For such a large and strategically important country given its recent conversion to a democratic political system in Latin America, it is astounding that the recent protests enveloping Brazil are so profoundly misunderstood. The reason for this misunderstanding is partially a skew introduced to political discourse by the media and partially as a result of our internal biases as Americans.
(03/02/16 6:53am)
Dining at the University is flawed. The meals could be healthier, students are forced by necessity to buy into plans many don’t want or need and there is a staggering amount of waste both in terms of food thrown away and meal content.
(02/16/16 5:05am)
When I was growing up, I believed in heroes, and heroes were plentiful. People like Peyton Manning, Steve Jobs and Michael Jackson were universally revered and respected as prime movers and innovators, as well as fundamentally good and admirable people. Skip forward to today, and the story has been flipped. The ideal idol, role model or hero has been overwhelmingly politicized and polarized to the point where there almost are no heroes left. Every hero has been killed by the pressure of intense scrutiny, the inability to stay on a moral high ground and the fact that digital activity and information about a person is preserved forever.
(02/09/16 5:44am)
I love football, but it is a violent sport. Recently, much has come out regarding the potential health hazards of playing the game, especially playing it professionally. In response, some have called for a boycott of the game based on the questionable morality of watching a sport that often mentally disables the athletes who play. On the other hand, people who unconditionally defend football and the behavior of the NFL act like they live in a universe where the NFL didn’t intentionally hide research on the dangers of playing football, or when people have committed suicide as a direct result of playing football. As usual, the middle way is the most prudent. We as consumers can pressure the NFL to be responsible to its athletes while simultaneously continuing to provide what I consider to be the best sporting league in the modern world.
(02/02/16 5:01am)
National debates about gun control are all the rage these days. Lately, debate has moved closer to Grounds as the Virginia General Assembly recently put forward House Bill 79, which would permit concealed carry for faculty members at all public colleges in Virginia, even if the institution itself objects.
(01/26/16 4:22am)
The world is not ending — but it seems half of America thinks it is. Political leaders on the right have been talking nonstop about America’s state of crisis; according to Donald Trump, we are losing “on every front, economically, militarily, there is nothing that we do now to win.” Both frenzied politicians and media writers are agitating fears of the threat ISIS poses to average American citizens. Thirty-four percent of Republicans list terrorism as the most important issue of the upcoming 2016 election, compared to just 11 percent of Democrats.
(12/08/15 5:00am)
I have always been skeptical of what I cannot see with my own eyes. When commentators on the left started decrying the gentrification of American cities I didn’t initially believe them. I looked at the one data point that I myself had experienced — my hometown of Florence, South Carolina — and saw none of the tell-tale signs of gentrification. In reality, I had simply not noticed them.
(12/03/15 5:15am)
To many students, Thanksgiving is the one time of the fall semester during which they can leave Grounds and the greater Charlottesville area and head back for the delights of home. I question, however, the decision not to give students the entire week of Thanksgiving off. The two-day gap between the weekend prior to Thanksgiving break and the actual break means students must choose between affordable travel, attending class and/or a more comprehensive vacation.
(11/30/15 5:05am)
Opinion columnist Matt Winesett recently penned a column titled “Thought Police at the Gates” which decried the growing propensity among college students and liberals to desire the restriction of First Amendment free speech rights, especially on college campuses. Student activists have expressed the desire to remove professors for holding opinions contrary to the prevailing beliefs of students, to pressure administrators to condemn the acts of reactionary groups, to discipline “thought criminals” and reeducate them. While these are all dangerous ideas, Winesett misses the underlying frustration with working within the system that drives usually liberal student activists to these strikingly near-fascist ideas. Free speech rights are already restricted in narrow cases and it is hypocritical to condone this in some instances while condemning it in others.
(11/17/15 5:00am)
The presidential candidate debates so far have been interesting, but they have lacked critical discourse about a range of issues. In particular, the National Security Agency’s program of surveillance on U.S. citizens and persons abroad has been left largely ignored in terms of its impact on personal privacy and security in the next century. Of the nominees from both sides of the isle, only Sen. Rand Paul, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Ted Cruz have voiced strong opposition to what is widely criticized as an illegal and unconstitutional program of warrantless spying on millions.
(11/11/15 5:15am)
The University has a sordid history of discrimination against disadvantaged groups. However, it is much harder to identify unfair treatment of non-disadvantaged groups and condemn it. In the case of Greek life at the University, there certainly is much to be desired, but it is fair to say the policy that Inter-Fraternity Council fraternities are not allowed to have certain alcoholic beverages while all other organizations including non-IFC fraternities such as those housed under the Multicultural Greek Council, National Pan-Hellenic Council and others have no such restrictions is flawed and discriminatory. The policy is intended to combat the patterns of sexual assault and binge drinking prevalent in Greek life — an important goal — but setting the line at certain drinks no matter how they are served is an arbitrary distinction that incentivizes bad behavior and is discriminatory in nature.
(10/27/15 5:38am)
Many Canadians have been celebrating the recent Canadian election that ended in a historic victory for Justin Trudeau’s Liberal party. His erstwhile opponent, former Prime Minister Stephen Harper, ran a campaign many political commentators accused of using scare tactics and playing to the fears and desires of his conservative base in the western areas of the country. Harper was further damaged by criticism over his treatment of refugees and his attempt to ban the niqab during certain ceremonies. Trudeau, on the other hand, ran a campaign that emphasized hope and emotional connections with voters.
(10/14/15 4:00am)
“The best laid schemes o’ mice and men/Often go awry.” These lines from Robert Burns’ “To a Mouse” are famous for their influence on American writer John Steinbeck, who used them to title “Of Mice and Men.” The novel is one that shocked my eighth grade consciousness. Even though Steinbeck wrote “Of Mice and Men” in 1937, the idea behind his title is one the American public psyche has yet to learn. Americans need to reflect on how they interact with the world and how the rest of the world interacts with them. Many of America’s foreign policy machinations are failing — however, a large portion of the American public refuses to accept the reality that all-powerful America can fail, and as a result, the public discourse on our past and present problems suffers, contributing to more failures.
(09/29/15 4:10am)
Two things recently drew my eye while I was surfing the web. I saw an event called the “Not a Model Minority Week,” which is being hosted by the Asian Student Union from Sept. 28 to Oct. 2. The other thing I saw was a new Diversity Initiative Award by the Honor Committee which, according to its website, aims to “celebrate several of our minority communities on Grounds… to increase minority students’ understanding of and engagement with the Honor System.” The juxtaposition of these two events brought to the forefront of my mind the discord between minority groups on Grounds and the dominant white majority.
(09/23/15 4:10am)
Student Council recently discussed the possibility of making Grounds smoke-free. To do so would be a massive infringement on personal rights and liberties.
(09/09/15 4:00am)
For a long time, there was seemingly one path to success as a country. It involved some combination of Western-style democracy which included a liberalization of the economy with an emphasis on human rights and freedoms. It is obvious now that each country needs to build its own unique path to development — China has proven there is more than one way to succeed as a country. Meanwhile, the United States and other Western democracies have faced challenges at home that reveal cracks in their own systems. The failures of our democracies are increasingly apparent and the only way to fix them is to limit democracy and openness, against conventional wisdom.
(09/01/15 4:10am)
Most of the attention-grabbing headlines about Internet privacy revolve around the National Security Agency and its legally ambiguous methods, but there are also severely problematic privacy issues right here at the University. Such issues stem from the University’s oversight of student email and student Internet access on Grounds. The unchecked power the University has over these services is troubling, especially since the rules and regulations regarding privacy in these domains are so ambiguous. We are left wondering: where does and where should University jurisdiction end and personal privacy begin?