Opinion Columns
Back before the beginning of the 2010-2011 school year, I happened to see a notice from the Iowa State Daily newspaper on Facebook. It noted that they were looking for opinion writers as the new school year began. At the time I considered myself "opinionated", but not too outspoken about them. Still, I figured "what the heck" and got in touch with the current opinion staff and started writing. I graduated in 2011 and closed my relationship with the Daily after making many friends, perhaps playing some role in the various ACP awards they won, and writing 46 different opinion columns with the paper. If you are looking at this page, I hope you can enjoy a few of these columns below and perhaps may enjoy any columns I write in the future.
At this point it has been hard to miss the massive protests going on across Egypt, supported by normal Egyptians as well as the illegal opposition party, the Muslim Brotherhood. Frankly, I can understand the motivation to finally get rid of a 30-year dictator. It doesn't seem like he has done a horrible job as president of Egypt over the years, which is one of the reasons he has survived so long. But the Egyptians want change, they want meaningful elections, and who are we to say that they shouldn't have that right we take for granted?
I think many students at Iowa State might agree with me that Campustown could use a facelift or at least an infusion of useful daytime businesses. We at the Daily were informed that many years ago, Campustown was more than just bars, music venues and sandwich shops. There used to be interesting daytime stores and small businesses in Campustown that opened before noon. The Campustown redevelopment plans are simply aiming to recreate this family and student friendly area that formerly existed just a stone's throw from Friley hall.
Iowa State Daily columnist Brandon Blue wrote about the ineffectiveness of writing new legislation to ban the sale of some types of dangerous weaponry in the United States. His point was that it doesn't help Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and the others killed and injured last week to write legislation now in reaction to the incident. I would debate this point, and argue that while new laws won't help the victims of the recent attack, this incident is a good excuse to re-examine our nation's gun laws or lack of gun laws.
This week we all are going back to some new classes for a new year and a new decade. 2011 begins the 202nd decade of the Common Era, and I know that you and I will help to make this new decade just as amazing as the last.
Let's stop for a second to examine what has happened in the last decade to give us a feel for how far we might go by the year 2020:
If you haven't been paying attention to politics as finals draw near, you probably haven't realized that the big issue facing Congress this December is end of the Bush-era tax cuts. Way back in 2001, when most students at Iowa State had not yet entered high school, tax cuts were enacted to, in effect, give back the budget surplus generated during the Clinton years.
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