Tony Pastagnoli

OPINION

Affirmative Action does not reinforce discrimination, but enhances diversity

By Tony Pastagnoli | Apr. 8, 2014

In my piece "White Privilege Continues To Plague American Progress," I outlined the systematic failures responsible for the racial injustices we see in our country today. I cultivated an opinion, but more importantly, I used facts to support my opinion. It is my firm belief that this is necessary when discussing issues as sensitive and complex as modern racial disparities. In last Monday’s opinion piece criticizing affirmative action—a piece where both of the writers, I would like to point out, have white privilege—there were a lot of close-minded thoughts expressed and zero substantial solutions offered to tackle the current problems of education inequality in this country.

OPINION

Rather than divest from ASM, students should divest from fossil fuels

By Tony Pastagnoli | Mar. 11, 2014

Spring is on its way, and with it comes a newly elected body of student government! Yay? Come on, you know you didn’t care that much. But when you think about it, they control the money, so it matters where that money is going. What does it say about us if fossil fuel companies profit from our investments? Well, let’s see what these new Associated Students of Madison people had to say. I was fortunate enough to attend last week’s ASM election results and after all the winners were announced, the press was given an opportunity to ask their questions. Now, it was my turn. I’m not a journalism major. I’m just a modestly concerned student filling in for someone. I also happen to believe in climate change and, being bitter over this polar vortex crap, decided to first ask them their stances on campus fossil fuel divestment. Anyone? Their silence felt like when some of Ellen’s jokes fell flat at the Oscars, but she still got laughs out of pity. She knows she wasn’t on her game that night. She knows.

OPINION

Democracy has no place for corruption: Scott Walker must go

By Tony Pastagnoli | Mar. 4, 2014

We are lucky to live in Wisconsin right now. Why? In New Jersey, the voters are stuck with Gov. Chris Christie for another four years. Here, we have a chance to bring justice to Gov. Scott Walker by voting him out this fall. It really is a shame the George Washington Bridge scandal was brought to light two months after Christie’s election, because now the blindsided people of New Jersey have to accept that they were used as pawns by their governor all for the sake of the man’s presidential aspirations. After all, there is no way the voters would have given Christie a second term if they knew about his behind-the-scenes political operations. In that East Coast blue state, they believed they elected a bipartisan leader, when in reality, he turned out to be just as corrupt as the next Republican. #Nixon.

CAMPUS NEWS

Action Project: White privilege continues to plague American progress

By Tony Pastagnoli | Feb. 24, 2014

We should be pissed that black men in America today stand a one-in-three chance of going to jail. We should be pissed that the unemployment rate for blacks in Dane County is at 25.2 percent, compared to 4.8 percent for whites. We should be pissed that the achievement gap between white students and black students in Wisconsin is the widest in the nation. In fact, we should be pissed that the widespread ignorance of these facts is the key explanation as to why we’ve never reached full racial equality in this country. The first step to solving a problem is admitting that there is one, and sadly, too many white people reject the idea that they have a privilege based on the color of their skin and that it is fueling the fires of racial injustice.

OPINION

Focus must shift from Obamacare to other issues

By Tony Pastagnoli | Feb. 11, 2014

We all know that one Republican who, particularly after a few drinks, is all of the sudden an expert on the American health care system and will argue until he or she is blue in the face about how Obamacare will ruin the country. Well, the Congressional Budget Office recently released a report on the Affordable Care Act and the facts are in. It is now essentially impossible to keep the debate going without the stubborn right wing coming across as totally misinformed buffoons. Let’s be very clear about this before we move on though: the CBO said Obamacare “would reduce the number of hours worked by the equivalent of 2.5 million full-time workers by 2025.”

OPINION

Keystone pipeline leads environmental debate

By Tony Pastagnoli | Feb. 6, 2014

"Climate change is a fact” were the words spoken by President Obama in his recent State of the Union address. Well done, Mr. President. Really, George W. Bush would have never said something that obvious about global warming when he was in office. Still, it doesn’t let Obama off the hook. He can say he’s all for combating climate change, but his words don’t amount to a hill of beans if he doesn’t demonstrate his executive authority on this issue.

Affirmative Action does not reinforce discrimination, but enhances diversity

Rather than divest from ASM, students should divest from fossil fuels

Democracy has no place for corruption: Scott Walker must go

Action Project: White privilege continues to plague American progress

Focus must shift from Obamacare to other issues

Keystone pipeline leads environmental debate

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