Opinion

Opinion

Letter: Libertarian and Republican politics are socially harmful

Daily Lobo Readers | April 9

Editor, It is common to hear Republicans and Libertarians say that less government is the solution to people's problems. This idea is not new and it has it's genesis in the writings of Thomas Robert Malthus. According to their Malthusian logic programs like food stamps, medicaid, social security and affirmative action should be eliminated, because government should not interfere with the wild west capitalism. Malthus argued that human population growth would eventually exceed the amount of food that was being produced; therefore he concluded that war, disease and famine were necessary in order to not exhaust the planet's limited resources.

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Opinion

International Issue: Column — Esperanto : The universal international language / Kolumno — Esperanto: la universala internacia lingvo

Aaron Cowan and Arono Kovano | April 9

Esperanto is sometimes referred to as “the International Language,” according to esperanto.net. Unlike traditional languages, such as English, Spanish or Chinese, which have naturally emerged over many hundreds or even thousands of years, Esperanto was intentionally invented by one person. Esperanto estas foje nomata "Internacia Lingvo" laŭ esperanto.net. Kontraste al tradiciaj lingvoj, kiel ekzemple la angla, hispana aŭ ĉina, kiuj nature evoluis dum multaj centoj aŭ eĉ miloj da jaroj, Esperanton intence inventis unu persono.

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Opinion

International Issue — Column: My experience as an international student / لم: میرا امریکہ اچ بین الاقوامی طالب علم ہوون دا تجربہ

Tasawar Shah | April 9

I am from Faisalabad, Pakistan and am currently a Ph.D. Language, Literacy & Sociocultural Studies candidate at the University of New Mexico. میں فیصل آباد پاکستان توں تعلق رکھدا آں تےاج کل یونیورسٹی آف نیو میکسیکو(یو این ایم) دے شعبے زبان، خواندگی تے معاشرتی علوم اچ پی ایچ ڈی دا طالب علم آں۔ میرا پہلا واہ یونیورسٹی آف نیو میکسیکو دے نال ٢٠١٤ اچ پیا جدوں ایچ ای سی دے ٩٠ فیصد آلے غیر ملکی وظیفے دے نال میں ایتھے پی ایچ ڈی واسطے درخواست دتی۔ دنیا دیاں بوہھوں ساریاں چنگیاں یونیورسٹیاں دا گھر ہون دی وجہ توں امریکا میرا پہلا انتخاب بنیا۔حالانکہ ایچ ای سی دی فہرست اچ یورپ تے ایشیا دیاں ہور وی یونیورسٹیاں موجود سن ۔ اپریل ٢٣، ٢٠١٥ دی شام نوں اپنی منزل البقرقی، نیو میکسیکو جاندیاں ہویاں میں نیو یارک دے جے ایف کینیڈی ہوائی اڈےاتے آپنا پہلا قدم رکھیا۔

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Opinion

International Issue — Column: Isle of Ré, a gem off the French coast/L’isle de Ré, un joyau de la côte atlantique française

Matthieu Cartron | April 9

“Ce ne sont que des mouches, Matthieu.” “They’re just flies, Matthieu,” my dad said to me. “Ce ne sont que des mouches, Matthieu,” me dit mon père.

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Opinion

International Issue — Column: Xenophobia must be recognized and fought/Columna: La xenofobia debe ser reconocida y combatida

Gabriella Rivera | April 9

It is easy to claim — on behalf of a nation, on behalf of a generation, on behalf of yourself as an individual — a progressive attitude much too advanced for destructive, discriminatory ideologies. It is easy to believe and maintain that you see beyond borders, that a common identity as humans makes differences in nationalities or cultures immaterial and arbitrary. Es fácil reclamar — en nombre de una nación, en nombre de una generación, en nombre de usted como individuo — una actitud progresista demasiada avanzada para ideologías destructivas y discriminatorias. Es fácil creer y mantener que usted ve más allá de las fronteras, que una identidad común como los humanos hace diferencias en nacionalidades o culturas inmateriales y arbitrarias.

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Opinion

International Issue — Column: Tips for studying abroad / コラム：留学のヒント

Anthony Jackson | April 9

The University of New Mexico’s Global Education Office has more than 250 programs held in 52 countries and spoken in 27 different languages. Students can receive credits toward graduation, depending on their program. ニューメキシコ大学（UNM）グローバルエデュケーションオフィス（GEO）には、52ヶ国、27言語での250以上の留学プログラムがあります。プログラムに応じて、卒業所要単位の取得が可能です。

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Opinion

International Issue — Guest Column: Learning Chinese can aid in variety of situations / 客座专栏. 学习中文，沟通文化.

Benjamin Yazza | April 9

In New Mexico, Spanish is a popular second language usually followed by French and German. My advisor told me this was due to its comparison to English. 在新墨西哥州，西班牙语是很流行的第二语言，继而是法语和德语。我的辅导老师告诉我这是因为这些语言跟英语很接近。

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Opinion

Letter: We should be open to multiple romantic relationships

Daily Lobo Readers | April 8

Editor, Like many people, I am able to be openly and honestly in love with more than one person at the same time. We teach children to share food, toys and friends. How selfish, how cruel the child who demands that his child friend have no other friends or playmates! We adults can learn to share our lovers with others.

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Opinion

Letter: Sanders does right by speaking out against Israeli crimes

Daily Lobo Readers | April 4

Editor, It has unfortunately become par for the course nowadays in U.S. politics for Zionists to conflate criticism of the state of Israel with antisemitism. Antisemitism is an ugly phenomenon which has negatively affected Jewish people throughout the ages, and all decent people should condemn it. With all that being said, I must give a tip of the hat to Sen. Bernie Sanders for using his Twitter account to criticize the state of Israel for murdering 17 Palestinians who were carrying out a peaceful protest in Gaza. The lack of human rights for Palestinians has been ignored for far too long by U.S. politicians, because they fear losing the financial support of pro-Israeli lobbies like AIPAC.

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Opinion

Letter: Immigration enforcement — Just as bad for Americans as it is for immigrants

Daily Lobo Readers | April 4

Editor, According to President Donald Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Oakland, California mayor Libby Schaaf prevented nearly 800 arrests by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in early March. That sounds like wishful thinking, but presumably Schaaf's warning to the public of impending ICE sweeps helped at least some undocumented immigrants avoid the dragnet. Mayor Schaaf is due our gratitude for her heroism. These ICE raids highlight one side of the case for for reining in (or better yet abolishing) ICE and its sister agencies, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Border patrol. That side is the human cost to immigrants: workers yanked from factories and farms. Families torn asunder. People seeking better lives dying of dehydration in the wilderness because water caches are destroyed or killed in crashes as they flee their would-be abductors.

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Opinion

Letter: Be as good a person as you can, but question the Bible

Daily Lobo Readers | April 2

Editor, I wish we had a fair, loving, all-powerful parent God who would rescue all who fervently prayed for help from war, starvation, cancer, addiction, tornadoes, drought, drunk drivers, rape, family violence, blindness, false charges, drones, torture and much more. Hundreds of millions of people throughout human history have prayed desperately to God the best they knew how and received no help.

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Opinion

Letter: Homeless people are our friends, not our enemies

Daily Lobo Readers | April 1

Editor, The University should build a homeless shelter on campus. Students and the unsheltered ought to be allies, not enemies. Yet in the three years I've been at UNM, I've seen nothing but disdain for the homeless coming from my fellow students. I've seen students walk past someone lying motionless on the sidewalk — no one stopping to help. I've seen opinion pieces that lay the blame for violence on the "shelter" of some bushes near the dorms. I've seen people walk on by from folks without homes who only wanted to ask the time. I've seen a woman wailing in the street because she had nowhere to go.

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Music

Column: Why contemporary classical music is relevant

Aubrie Powell | April 1

When it comes to the arts, catering to norms can be stifling. Contemporary classical music is a little-known world that brings a variety of approaches to the creation of sound within time and space, and none of these approaches can be described as completely normative. Most notably, composers in this world are alive and able to interact with other intellects and musical voices — something that Mozart and Beethoven simply cannot do. To most, this may not seem like a big deal when compared to popular contemporary musicians like Beyoncé, Ed Sheeran and Kanye West. These artists are alive, if not accessible. However the world of classical concert music is plagued by nostalgia, where new music often slides back to include music from the late 19th century.

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Opinion

Letter: Easter prayers in America — we need them

Daily Lobo Readers | March 29

Editor, The gospels of Matthew and Mark identify the place where Jesus prayed shortly before his betrayal by Judas and then later his trial and crucifixion at Gethsemane. Jesus was accompanied by three of his followers, Peter, John and James, whom he asked to stay awake and pray. During his agony as he prayed, "his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down upon the ground" (Luke 22:44).

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Opinion

Letter: The US should pull out of Afghanistan immediately

Daily Lobo Readers | March 28

Editor, After World War II, many of the Nazi military leaders were put on trial at Nuremberg and hanged for their crimes against humanity. One of these leaders, Hermann Goring, gave a memorable quote before he was sent to the gallows. Goring said, "The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country." 

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Opinion

Letter: Booze poisons your mind and body

Daily Lobo Readers | March 25

Editor, I drink no booze! Booze has devastated the lives of many of my dear friends. Booze causes car crashes, paralyzing and killing thousands, including my niece, Rachel. Booze causes awful family fights, ruined romances, horrible holiday memories. I do not want to make it easier for me to say or do things I later terribly regret. Men wake up in jail not remembering stabbing their wife or buddy while drunk the night before.

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Opinion

Letter: On military spending and trade, Trump puts Americans last

Daily Lobo Readers | March 25

Editor, US president Donald Trump signed yet another massive government spending bill -- $1.3 trillion -- on March 23, after threatening a veto. Why did he threaten a veto? Because the bill doesn't fund his cherished US-Mexico border wall idea, and because it doesn't address the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that he's threatened to end absent a "fix." Why did he sign it? For the military spending.

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Opinion

Column: New Mexico's amazing women

Megan Holmen | March 21

March is Women’s History Month. Here, in New Mexico, we have a whole host of amazing women working on amazing projects, research and perpetuating change every day. Women’s History Month not only looks to celebrate herstory but also recognizes the continuous hard work of women whose actions create social change and move toward gender equality. Women in New Mexico have done some pretty spectacular and groundbreaking work between last year’s and this year’s International Women’s Day.

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Opinion

Letter: Another shooting, and Republicans still won't do anything

Daily Lobo Readers | March 21

Editor, It's another day in America and yet again we are receiving the tragic news of yet another school shooting. God willing, the students who were shot will pull through their injuries, and everyone should be giving credit to the officer who stopped the shooter before he could do more damage. Whether we like it or not, guns are a political issue, because at the end of the day we are supposedly living in a democracy where the people can vote to change laws as they see fit through their elected representatives. In general, Democrats and Republicans are very similar on many issues, but when it comes to the issue of guns, it is no secret that most Republicans are in the pocket of the National Rifle Association.

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Opinion

Letter: 12-Step programs can turn your life around

Daily Lobo Readers | March 21

Editor, Like all human beings, I’ve experienced my share of pain, and suffered considerably. I was born into a violent, alcoholic home. When the clock struck six, and my father wasn’t home yet, I knew there was going to be hell to pay that night.