Columns

Opinion

Column: STUNT takes cheerleading to a new level

Catherine Stringam | February 25

For the first time ever, the University of New Mexico's all-girl cheerleading team will be playing STUNT during the Big 12 Meet, Friday through Sunday in Oklahoma City. As a freshman on the UNM all-girl team, this is super exciting for me. I have cheered for a long time and competed in a variety of competitions — both high school and all-star, at the state, national and international levels.

---

Opinion

Column: A letter on journalists, apologies and accountability, in light of cartoon controversy

Danielle Prokop | February 9

Dear Reader, I’m not writing about the cartoon — yeah, that one. The cartoon depicting “Dreamers,” immigrant youths who were brought here as children, as terrorists and gang members from Mara Salvatrucha, also known as MS-13. The cartoon that sparked a protest, condemnations from locals to lawmakers and received national coverage. Instead, let’s talk about journalists, apologies and accountability.

---

Opinion

Career Issue: Column — Jobs in sports for non-athletes

Cameron Goeldner | February 4

For most young athletes, there’s a moment when they realize that they don’t have the athletic ability to play their sport professionally someday. For many, this is where their hopes of someday working in sports comes to an end — and that’s fine, but that doesn’t have to be the case. There are many careers for those of us who may not be athletically gifted enough to play beyond our youngest years (anyone else get cut from the high school golf team? No? Just me?), so let's start with the obvious ones.

---

Opinion

Column: Prove me wrong

Nichole Harwood | January 31

Childhood holds a peculiar time in our lives. At the tender age of five to 10, we are impressionable, curious and open to learn new and innovative information. As teenagers we are often stubborn and passionate, as we slowly form the identities that will define our adulthood. It is only when we take that final step into adulthood that some of our firmest beliefs from our teenage years are finally shaken.

---

Opinion

Column: An open letter to protesters, from a concerned journalist

Danielle Prokop | January 28

Dear Protester, I am a journalist. One of the mainstream media, if that is the name you choose. I go to rallies, marches, demonstrations, sit-ins — you name it, I cover it. I am there because you are. The causes you support, the tension and disruption are all means of facilitating discussion. So, talk to me. Tell me about it.

---

Opinion

Column: Programs against poverty benefit everybody

Nichole Harwood | January 24

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), Medicaid, Student Loans, Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) and Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) — these are all programs that many individuals have used at some point in their lives, even if they didn’t know it. All generations, whether it is Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millenials or the upcoming Generation Z, have felt the ripple of poverty that has left its impact throughout the history. Not all individuals were born with a silver spoon. Despite the fact that poverty has long been a factor in any society, American or otherwise, there is often a stigma to it.

---

Opinion

Column: Trump's first year in office

Nichole Harwood | January 21

Jan. 20 marked a full year since Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States. Love the current president or despise him, few can deny that his first year has been anything but ordinary. Trump’s approach to his candidacy for the White House was widely viewed as unorthodox, and he has continued this approach into his presidency. Trump has involved himself on social media far more than any of his predecessors and used Twitter as a form of communication to spread both his positive and negative views on national and international politics.

---

Opinion

Guest Column: BioBlog — The secret life of poop

Aurora Kraus and Heather Mercer | January 21

Poop is funny. As scientists, we have many euphemisms for it: guano, scat, feces and frass. But no matter what you call it, or how old you are, poop makes you laugh. However, most people don’t appreciate the health benefits of having healthy poop.

---

Opinion

Column: Don't forget the homeless after the holidays

Elizabeth Sanchez | January 17

When the holiday season is in full swing, so is giving. But why can’t giving be something we do more of year round? Just last week, I was driving in Downtown Albuquerque and happened to notice quite a few tents and sleeping bags in the area — there’s something beautiful and symbolic and silently loud about the things people choose to carry when there is only so much they can own. It reminded me of the fundraisers, donation bins and meal preps that were abundant over the past two months. Awareness was abundant. Where did all the help go?

---

Opinion

Column: Bridging the gap between generations

Nichole Harwood | January 7

Is the millennial generation entitled? Well, that depends highly on who you ask. Most individuals who fall in the 20-year age gap of being born after 1980 and to come of age in the new millenia would argue no.

---

Opinion

Column: Don't be afraid to come out to your family

Kyle Land | December 4

This past Thanksgiving, my grandfather passed away. For most people, such an event would be very emotionally-trying. Yet, from the moment he passed until the day he was buried, I felt strangely conflicted. As cliché as it may sound, my grandfather was very religious. No — that’s putting it mildly. Religion, specifically Orthodox Christianity, was the dominant force in his life.

---

Opinion

Column: Sports editor goes half-beard, full ridiculous to cap No-shave November experience

Robert Maler | December 3

It's December now, but last month many people chose to forego shaving to take part in the phenomenon known as "no-shave November". Many men started growing out their facial hair and some women stopped their routine of leg-shaving as the 30-day event kicked off. A lot of people—perhaps even some of those who participate in no-shave November festivities—may not know there is a reason behind making the decision to forego grooming.

---

Opinion

Column: Black Friday has, disappointingly, become more orderly

Colton Newman | November 26

Black Friday is a holiday that stands on its own — or it used to be. Over the last couple of years Black Friday has been bleeding over into Thanksgiving. Just a few years ago Black Friday meant getting up at 3 a.m. to get in line at your local Target, Best Buy or Walmart and waiting until 6 a.m. to run to the tech section and fight for the lowest priced television sets. Shopping cart traffic jams and gabfests over discounted DVD players were the enjoyable drama that constituted the normal/abnormal behavior.

---

Opinion

Guest Column: New partnership commits to improving Lobo Gardens

Hanes Motsinger | November 26

Editor's Note: This piece submitted by a student in the UNM Geography & Environmental Studies Department is part of our project to help connect the Daily Lobo audience to more members of our community. A new partnership at the University of New Mexico’s Lobo Gardens is enhancing opportunities for the UNM and Albuquerque community to learn how the health of our urban communities and natural worlds are connected. The new collaboration among the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, AmeriCorps VISTA, UNM’s STEAMLabs, the Community Engaged Learning and Research Office and the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies increases the resources and enhances the focus of Lobo Gardens, which was first established in 2010.

---

Opinion

Column: Cameras aren't good enough to fight crime

Ludella Awad | November 19

The City of Albuquerque District Attorney’s office announced a new program to prevent and reduce crime — SCAN, or Security Camera Analytic Network. The idea is to encourage homes and businesses to register their cameras and join the security camera map. Every day in Albuquerque, we hear about crime, and it is often hard for investigators to pinpoint who was involved and what happened. Investigators try to utilize security cameras located near the area, hoping to get any information they can by obtaining relevant videos of the crime.

---

Opinion

Guest Column: BioBlog — Climate Change and Me

Nick Freymueller | November 19

Editor's Note: This piece was originally published online in the UNM BioBlog on Nov. 9, 2017, written by Nick Freymueller. This is part of our project to help connect the Daily Lobo audience to more members of our community. How does climate change affect the daily life of Alaskans and their winter commute? Masters student Nick Freymueller discusses what it was like to grow up in Alaska and how climate change has personally affected his community in the cold north in the UNM BioBlog.

---

Opinion

Column: Panhandling ordinance punishes kindness and ignores those in need

Ludella Awad | November 13

Albuquerque City Council unanimously passed an ordinance on Nov. 6, making panhandling to motorists illegal. This is not a good solution for our city. The City Council’s new pedestrian ordinance places restrictions not only on panhandlers, but also on vendors such as Girl Scouts selling cookies to motorists. The ordinance also forbids “boot brigade” firefighters from receiving donations from people in their cars. The criminalizing of these harmless fundraisers not only ignores what the people in Albuquerque asked for, but also does not solve the issue it was meant to address.

---

Culture

Column: Is anime no longer a niche market?

Nichole Harwood | November 6

2017 saw the cinematic release of “Ghost in the Shell,” a movie that was centered around a very popular anime one that spawned multiple animated movies itself and an animated series beforehand. Growing up, I watched one of the anime adaptations, “Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.” As a teenager, I enjoyed the series, it was never my favorite show, but I took enjoyed watching it well enough. When I heard of the 2017 cinematic movie, I was more intrigued than excited. After watching the trailer and reading the synopsis, I dismissed it entirely.

---

Opinion

Sex and Relationships Issue — Column: Are dating apps destroying the dating world?

Madison Spratto | October 26

In a technology-crazed society, there seems to be an app for everything, including ones to help people find every type of relationship they might desire. From apps like Tinder and Grindr that feed into the growing “hook-up” culture, to websites like Match.com and Christian Mingle that aim to set up marriages, there is no shortage of online dating options. There are even sites dedicated to finding farmers and surfers their dream match.

---

Opinion

Sex and Relationships Issue — Column: The struggle of living with chronic pelvic pain

Hannah Eisenberg | October 25

It took five years, two dozen doctors and roughly $5,000 in medical bills for me to be diagnosed with vulvodynia, a condition defined as chronic vulvar-vaginal pain lasting more than three months, without any identifiable cause. I was the ripe old age of 20 when vulvodynia set up shop in my nether regions, causing a daily, raw pain. I attended doctor appointments religiously, in sheer horror at what my body was going through. I wanted to know where the pain had come from, what it was called and how I could fix it. Ultimately, however, I would leave with more questions and a gnawing sense of despondency.