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.
I got a message the other day on Facebook from a friend who I helped a few years ago to set up an ISU freeze on Central Campus. She was inviting me to join a few hundred other ISU students in an event happening at the end of this month, a "Zombie Invasion!" The game goes a little something like this: Beginning on Homecoming weekend — Oct. 29 — participants will each begin wearing a red bandana visibly on their body to show that they are human, not zombies. A single person will also have a green bandana on. They are the zombie.
I'm not sure how many students at Iowa State stay up to date on the latest space science news. But, if you don't pay attention to what scientists are learning about the galaxies beyond our atmosphere, the recent big news was that a group of astronomers had used the Keck Observatory in Hawaii to find a planet orbiting a distant star that could be much like Earth. This causes me to ponder the question "Will we discover other life forms in space in my lifetime?"
A few days ago, there was an article in the Daily about Congressmen Steve King, R-Iowa, and Mike Pence, R-Ind., who were at a recent Republican fundraiser, giving their negative opinions of various Democrats. They also made some notable remarks about their wishes to remove the recently passed Affordable Care Act — also known in some circles as "Obamacare" — from law as soon as possible.
Right now I know that a few ISU students will be traveling at the end of October to Washington, D.C. to participate in the rallies that Comedy Central personalities Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert plan to host there. But why are these students planning to travel more than 1,000 miles for a rally or march, each orchestrated not by a politician, but by a comedian? Maybe they just want to show their support for Comedy Central's political satire and have some fun while doing it.
If you are an avid and thorough reader of the Daily, you may have read all the way to the back page last Tuesday. There you would have found a small article about growing intolerance for immigrants in Europe. This intolerance, along with our own issues concerning immigration, New York mosques and minority population growth highlight an issue that may erupt during our lifetimes.
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