Congratulations. If you’re reading this you’re probably a brand new Badger. What an exciting time for you! You’re at SOAR, about to meet a bunch of new friends, register for classes for the first time and not that long from now you’ll be moving into your residence hall. Yes, it is a thrilling time indeed.
The end is near. Doomsday prophecies aside, the school year is nearly complete and for a lot of Badgers, myself included, it means our time in college is nearly over as well. Compared to the life ahead of us, college is but a small fraction of time. As short as it seemed, it has been one hell of a trip and one that will have a profound impact on me for the rest of my life. More than the friendships, classes, parties and Union Terrace, college is a remarkable opportunity to challenge yourself and in so doing, discover your potential.
Handing the keys off
As the school year comes to a close, members of our Editorial Board sound off in a series of blurbs on issues in which they’d like to see progress.
When I came to the states for the first time in my life last September, what I missed the most was not sushi. Not even close. I realized that there is no Washlet at UW Madison. I was almost screaming in the middle of the campus.
May Day is Labor Day everywhere in the world but the United States. It’s International Workers’ Day. To commemorate this day, I want to talk about the workers right here - workers at UW-Madison.
I sometimes wonder at night just what America could accomplish if we diverted all of the manpower spent viciously and unflinchingly defending the actions of police, or jumping at the chance to criticize the protests of black lives that make the evening news. I have not seen a more dedicated, faithful and active group of people on social media (less so in person) than people who seek to justify the actions of law enforcement officers. At best, and at worst, they seek to denigrate the position of anyone protesting or questioning the case. I don’t see people willing to have a dialogue about the frustration between blacks and the American justice system, I see people demanding the cessation of the one thing that an oppressed minority have to get the attention of the disinterested majority.
It is a conflict greater than the Romans versus the Greeks, more hate-filled than the Montagues and the Capulets, more biologically defined than cats feuding with dogs. Scholars and scientists to this day cannot confidently answer the simple yet vital contest: Qdoba or Chipotle?
I really am not fond of calculus. I didn’t really understand when math turned from numbers, to letters, to arbitrary symbols. And why use a secret language when words are far more effective? Can’t I just use English to prove my points?
It’s official. In the wake of probing by the Department of Justice and a deluge of citizen backlash, Comcast, the country’s largest Internet and cable provider, will not move forward with its plan to acquire Time Warner, the country’s second largest Internet and cable provider. Unless you’re Satan, this is great news. Taken with the recent decision on the part of the Federal Communications Commission to uphold net neutrality, there appears to be a glimmer of hope that the rules of our media landscape aren’t yet written completely by the telecommunications behemoths.
A fire’s burning in Oregon, but this runaway blaze was far from somebody failing to dump water on a campsite’s smoldering coals. There’s an armed standoff between the Bureau of Land Management and the owners of the Sugar Pine Mine over who owns the rights to the land it is on. However, instead of being content with the legal system or taking to news outlets to share their story, the owners of Sugar Pine have called in organizations such as The Three Percenters Club, Oath Keepers and the Arizona State Militia to have a standoff with law enforcement officials.
I spent all afternoon Friday, April 17 lying on the dock by Memorial Union. Yeah, I would absolutely hate me too. But I finished class at 9:40 a.m., and winter is apparently back, so for all we know that quite literally might have been the nicest day Wisconsin will have until June. So, I took advantage of it. Allowing my alarmingly Irish skin to fry like a cheese curd in the minimally intense sunshine.
When I committed to the University of Wisconsin-Madison I was ready to challenge myself academically, socially and culturally as an involved Jewish freshman. I knew that my college choice would be a journey of growth and I was ready to take on the college world by keeping an open mind. I had always been an active Jewish child through my family’s Friday Shabbat routine, my elementary education at a Jewish private day school, nine summers spent at a Jewish summer camp and eventually studying abroad during my sophomore year of high school in Israel. I made the choice to explore myself, my faith and my abilities by exploring Israel, a country that values culture, passion, history and celebration.
Tits, ass, pussy. These are the words that choke the media of today. All we see is naked ladies and their genitals spread open cross the magazine covers. With this said, what is the difference between commercialized pornography and the sexualized material we view at bus stops, on television, in magazines, or in movies?
I think one of the greatest and worst psychological defense mechanisms in the human mind is denial. It is an outright refusal to admit that something has occurred or is currently occurring. The irony is that what is used to protect us actually hinders progress and true peace. As a mechanism, it is so tempting to use, even when confronted with its faults.
Living away from parents is a fun adventure. In the beginning I felt so invincible. Like, “I’ll stay awake forever on a Monday night because I feel no pain and nothing matters except what I feel in this moment, and right now I want pizza and I don’t care what it does to my body because it’s the middle of the night and I’m in college, man.” This was a far leap from my years of living at home, when my mom was there to emotionally lift me out of bed every morning, my dad was there to spread the peanut butter on my toast, and then the two of them would literally watch me walk from the house to my car yelling after me the inspiring yet slightly condescending phrase, “Make good choices!”
As college students, we came to Madison to further our education and take that critical step to join the workforce. The benefits of a college degree are irrefutable, and going to college is about as culturally ingrained as apple pie and baseball here in America.
This past Sunday Hillary Clinton announced her candidacy for president in 2016—the worst kept secret in politics. Over the last few weeks, Republican candidates have also come forth with their respective declarations of candidacy with undoubtedly more to come. The large difference between the two is that Clinton has a better chance of winning the Democratic nomination without any serious competitor than any non-incumbent in recent memory, while the Republicans have a long primary season ahead.
At 7:22 in the morning, 150 years ago today, the most brilliant political leader in our country’s history died, hunched over on a stranger’s bed that was too short for his body. He was 56 years old. In that time he accomplished more politically than anyone ever had and anyone ever will.
It’s difficult to have a citizenry who gives a damn about voting when they immediately associate politics as a shouting match between two sides who are constantly trying to undermine the other. There is the office of the presidency and then there is the President of the United States. There is the governorship and there is the governor. In both of these instances, the titles and the individuals themself are not synonymous but you must have civility when discussing the man or woman holding that office. When the media is critical of, and investigates Gov. Scott Walker or President Barack Obama’s policies it is healthy and just as much a part of the democratic process as voting, calling them names in an effort to boost ratings or web traffic, is not.
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Solutions by The State News
