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(04/12/01 9:00am)
If we truly value free speech, we should value the right of other people to express any view, no matter how different it is from our own view. Personally, I think that last Friday's protest was pseudo-activism at its best. A self-righteous group of poorly organized, self-promoting students, aired a laundry list of feel-good socially engineered concepts that were poorly thought out, uselessly vague, and at times unintelligible. While I question the motivation of these protesters, and disagree with many of their principles, I support their right to voice these opinions. I also hope that they will listen when others choose to express conflicting opinions. Unfortunately, all too often this same freedom of expression is not afforded to dissenting points of view.
(03/07/01 11:00am)
Though we live in prosperous times, many Americans, especially children, still face the reality of poverty. President Bush's ideas for Charitable Choice attempt to give a helping hand to those who are on the front lines battling the epidemic of poverty. Charitable Choice, which first began as a part of the 1996 Welfare Reform Bill, is simply guarantees that private organizations helping the community cannot be excluded from federal funding simply because they have a religious affiliation. Federal dollars may be used by these organizations for community building programs but not to specifically preach a belief. Many of President Bush's critics during the campaign claimed that the Compassionate Conservatism was a feel-good catch phrase that had little corresponding legislation. The commitment to expanding Charitable Choice programs is a concrete testament to that philosophy in practice.
(03/01/01 11:00am)
Throughout his career, Bill Clinton has championed himself as the politician who gives a voice to the underrepresented little guy. Ever the consummate politician, he was able to label the Republican party as the darlings of big business. Then in a complete turn around, Clinton pardoned corporate fat cat Marc Rich, who fled the country without paying $48 million in taxes. Apparently big businessmen are okay if their wives hold high society fundraisers for the DNC in their Manhattan penthouses.
(02/08/01 11:00am)
In 1980 a melancholy America needed inspiration. Americans were being held hostage by revolutionaries in Iran, the economy was sputtering, tensions with the Soviet Union were high, and the wounds of Watergate and Vietnam were not yet healed. At the Lake Placid Olympics that February, a collection of American college hockey players defeated the heavily favored professional Soviet team, an event that came to be known as the Miracle on Ice. As millions of television sets tuned into this game, America celebrated together and forgot about its deep divisions, if only for a little while. Less than a week later, Ronald Reagan, campaigning on patriotic themes, unexpectedly won the New Hampshire primary and captured the heart of the American people. Reagan understood that Americans wanted to recapture the patriotic pride lost in the previous decades, and in turn he inspired a generation.
(02/01/01 11:00am)
President Bush: Twelve days ago, you put your hand upon the same Bible that your father and George Washington had before you and swore to uphold the laws of the United States. And with that act, you began your tenure holding the most powerful job in the world. There will always be some who question your legitimacy, and some who are waiting for you to stumble. But the vast majority of Americans, whether they voted for you or not, want you to succeed. At the end of your term, when you board Marine One for the last time and wave a cheerful good-bye to the American people, we hope that you leave the country a better place than it was when you received the reigns of power.
(01/22/01 11:00am)
Though many of us expected Bill Clinton to chain himself to his desk in the Oval Office, he finally left the White House for good on Saturday. True to form, he continued to make appearances and drag out good-byes rather than graciously yielding the spotlight on President Bush's day to shine. This was just a reminder to the nation that the Clinton presidency was ultimately an eight-year campaign to control public opinion polls. With the Cold War over, the economy booming, and a high-tech industrial revolution, Clinton had an incredible opportunity to move the country in a new direction for a new millennium. Clinton's ultimate failure as a president was his inability to realize that the goal of the presidency is not to become re-elected but to try and work to pass policy that is commensurate with a cohesive philosophy for the betterment of America.
(01/10/01 11:00am)
In the wake of Columbine and the recent shootings in a Massachusetts tech firm, it
(01/04/01 11:00am)
In less than three weeks, the Republican Party will simultaneously control both the Executive and Legislative Branches for the first time in a generation while conservatives also slightly outnumber liberals in the Supreme Court. Though the GOP is technically in control, don't expect a new Contract with America to be coming anytime soon. With a virtual tie in Congress following a very close presidential election, the honeymoon will be short-lived. The two parties must either learn to find common ground, or we will see gridlock that is even worse than the showdowns that led to two government shutdowns.
(11/01/00 11:00am)
There is under a week until the election in which the American people will decide who will be the next leader of the free world. The election is turning out to be a choice between two philosophies of governing. One man is guided by a principled vision for a better America. The other man is guided almost purely by the cynical pragmatism of politics that has disenchanted so many of us.
(10/25/00 9:00am)
It seems that the next two weeks are going to be a duel right up until the polls close. Though it may be the closest race in 40 years, it might also have the lowest turnout in 75 years. Let's forget about the whole argument of two men of privilege vying for a position of power passed down to them by the stature of their fathers. Men of means have almost always dominated the political arena. We should look at who these men really are. In 1964, Lyndon Johnson ran ads saying,"the stakes were too high" to elect the divisive Barry Goldwater. With the country at peace and the economy doing well, this year many Americans seem to be thinking that the stakes are too low for anyone to care.
(10/18/00 9:00am)
Liberals in a traditional political definition are thought of as people looking to change the status quo in order to create a better system, while conservatives are generally defined as people looking to preserve the current system. The major parties' positions on education reform are a glaring example of how, in practice, these definitions have been turned on their heads. Both parties will agree that the level at which American children are being educated must be raised. By thinking out of the box, Republicans like George W. Bush have proposed bold new ideas that challenge traditional notions of the role of public education. Meanwhile, Democrats are hopelessly stuck in the quagmire of a failed education system, afraid to revamp it because of their subservience to teachers' unions.
(10/11/00 9:00am)
If running for office is like being a boxer, then running for President is like going for the heavyweight title. You can dance around and take little jabs at your opponent, feeling each other out in early rounds; but eventually you must come together and exchange blows. Put plainly, politics is a pure power grab. If brokers and bankers get into what they do for the money, politicians do it all for the power. This is not a game for nice guys: if you want real power, you have to be willing to get down and fight.
(10/03/00 9:00am)
In rowing there exists a collegiate tradition of awarding shirts to the winner of the race. After the boats are out of the water, and the competitors have caught their breath, the loser approaches the winner, finds the man who rowed opposite him, hands him his shirt and shakes his hand. It is a recognition that your foe has trained hard like you, has sacrificed like you, has wanted to win like you and that, on a another day, the result might be reversed. This tradition may seem ridiculous, but it demonstrates a respect for competition that was at times glaringly peculiar and at other times overtly absent from the Olympic events this year.
(08/10/00 9:00am)
After seeing the post-convention polls putting him 17 points behind and momentum clearly going against him, Al Gore must have felt desperation. In order to place a barrier between him and the scandal-ridden Clinton-Gore administration he has made a surprising choice for Vice President by picking Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut. The highly popular and squeaky-clean senator enjoys wide support from both parties. Lieberman is probably the Democrat who is the most fundamentally different from Gore when it comes to issues of policy, morality, and electoral fair play.