Opinion - The Daily Lobo

Opinion

Letter: Remember MLK's opposition of the Vietnam War

Daily Lobo Readers | January 15

Editor, Prophet Martin Luther King, Jr. damned the Vietnam War in his most controversial speech on April 4, 1967 — exactly one year before he was assassinated. King damned the U.S. mass murder of Vietnamese people. King said, “The greatest purveyor of violence in the world today is the my own government.” The New York Times, the Washington Post, many newspapers nationwide condemned his strong message of truth! Many whites, many blacks, the White House, even most of King’s inner circle of black leaders condemned his strong message of truth!

Opinion

Letter: In defense of immigration from "Shithole Countries"

Daily Lobo Readers | January 15

Editor, "Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?" U.S. President Donald Trump allegedly asked during an Oval Office meeting, further musing that the U.S. should try to strike a new balance with fewer immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean and more from, say, Norway. Well, of course, he shouldn't have put it THAT way, if he did (he denies it). Between the language and the demographics in his supposed example, he's handed his opponents the opportunity for a doubly delicious round of public moral preening — look how vulgar, and how racist, Donald Trump is!

Opinion

Guest Column: BioBlog — Into the mud: A Solomon Islands story

Xena Mapel | January 15

Editor's Note: This piece was originally published online in the UNM BioBlog on Dec. 11, 2017, written by Xena Mapel. This is part of our project to help connect the Daily Lobo audience to more members of our community. What is it like to conduct international field work as a biologist?

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

Letter: Men should be ashamed for sexual harassment epidemic

Daily Lobo Readers | January 7

Editor, This letter is in response to the articles covering the sexual harassment allegations made against men in the media and government throughout the United States. To all males living in this country, I issue a collective statement: enough already! Who are you to impose your sexual desires on someone, because they did not give you their consent?

Opinion

Letter: LoboAlerts warnings need to be more timely

Daily Lobo Readers | January 7

Editor, While I understand the need for the LoboAlerts advisory text messages, something really needs to be done about the timeliness of them, or lack thereof.

Opinion

Column: Why isn’t Dead Week really “dead”?

Madison Spratto | December 12

It’s that time of year again — students are sleeping less, studying more and questioning if they really need a college degree. That’s right, it’s finals week. Wheather someone is a Chemistry major, or a journalism major like myself, chances are they are counting down the days until winter break, and calculating exactly what grade they need on their final to still pass — C’s get degrees after all, right? Preparing for finals has become so notorious for contributing to an exponential rise in stress that many students refer to it as “Dead Week."

Opinion

Letter: IT's response to letter published on Nov. 19 regarding Banner

Daily Lobo Readers | December 10

Editor, This letter is written in response to a letter to the editor published on Nov. 19, titled "UNM should be careful with upcoming Banner overhaul." Thank you for taking the time to respond to the UNM News story regarding the updates to the Banner system. The resources you reviewed on the published site were intended to provide a high-level view of the steps we have in place to prepare Banner 9 for go-live, and, as you note, they do not show the level of detail to address your concern about our approach to testing, nor do they represent the full project hours for each implementation.

Opinion

Letter: Suicide is never the best answer

Daily Lobo Readers | December 10

Editor, I, as an older student, am here to say to younger students: never commit suicide. I'll tell you why. It isn't as it I have never wanted to, because I have when I was in my 20s. I had two almost tragically close attempts. Then after the second attempt, I made a decision that no matter how hard life got, I would never do that.

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

Letter: Religion has no place on campus

Daily Lobo Readers | December 3

Editor, As I meet and speak with other students, as I notice which groups are setting up where and how often, I am struck by how great a presence religion has on campus. To be sure, it is always Christians evangelizing, but my concern stretches to any faith-based tradition. Religion does not belong on campus. We are here to learn. Importantly, we are here to sophisticate our knowledge.

Opinion

Letter: Trump's insults put women in danger

Daily Lobo Readers | December 3

Editor, The misogynist history of Donald Trump’s predatory mindset is nothing new and should not surprise anyone. The fact that it still does, speaks against the hypocritical self-conception of this country as a beacon of justice. A quick glance at Trump’s trail of verbal abuse is indicative of even worse atrocities this man is accused of having committed during the course of his parasitic existence.

Opinion

Guest Column: BioBlog — From the Balsas Valley to your dinner plate

Amelia Villaseñor , Nick Freymueller , Zach Fry , Brittany Zengerly and Jenna McCullough | December 3

Editor's Note: This piece was originally published online in the UNM BioBlog on Nov. 23, 2017, written by the students of the Biology Department’s BioBlog class. This is part of our project to help connect the Daily Lobo audience to more members of our community. When you look down on your Thanksgiving dinner plate, do you see a distortion of evolution? If not, you should. What we consider to be corn today is more robust than what was eaten by early settlers, and is unrecognizable compared to its ancestor, teosinte. A recent UNM BioBlog discusses how and why teosinte, a wild grass that produces a small, 2-inch “cob,” evolved into modern corn.

Daily Lobo Sports Editor Robert Maler shaves half his beard after participating in No-Shave November, per the voting results of the Daily Lobo staff on Dec. 3, 2017. Maler hopes his actions will help raise money to buy gifts for the patients at the oncology center at Presbyterian Hospital in Albuquerque.

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: Information literacy is as important as ever

Nichole Harwood | November 30

A student has to write a report on Joan of Arc for her history class. She goes home and flips open her mother’s laptop hitting the Google Chrome button on the bottom of the screen. The icon brings up the search engine for her instantly, and she types in “Joan of Arc.” It doesn’t matter if she even spells “Joan of Arc” correctly; it doesn’t even matter that she doesn’t know the last name of the individual she is researching. With the three simple words, “Joan of Arc,” the search engine comes to life, instantly connecting her to 29,700,000, results all providing information on the historical figure. And isn’t that amazing?

Opinion

Column: Sexual harassment and assault allegations could spark social change

Elizabeth Sanchez | November 30

When I was a junior in high school and Prom was just around the corner, my history teacher asked the class to sit down and have a little talk. He wrote three lines on the board: “Rule No. 1: All men are pigs. Rule No. 2: There are no exceptions to Rule No. 1.” Rule No. 3 was something fun and arbitrary about enjoying the dance.

Opinion

Letter: We should all be vigilant about increasing hate crime rates

Daily Lobo Readers | November 29

Editor, In October 2017, The Chronicle of Higher Education sent a video warning to its online list that hate fliers by white supremacists are appearing with greater frequency on college campuses.Here is the link: chronicle.com/article/inside-an-unprecedented. I am an alum (PhD, American Studies, 1983) and retired college professor who has studied hate crimes since the late 1980s. Hate crimes cause trauma, injury and death. Here is a link to a recent Southern Poverty Law Center article drawn from the FBI Uniform Crime report about the rise in hate crimes since the 2016 election of President Donald Trump: splcenter.org/hatewatch.

Opinion

Letter: The world needs to intervene in Rohingya ethnic cleansing

Daily Lobo Readers | November 29

Editor, What is going on with the Rohingyas who were exiled from their own home country is an atrocity. Why is the world still tolerating these horrendous ethnic cleansing practices?

Opinion

Letter: I would not trade my simple lifestyle for one of luxury

Daily Lobo Readers | November 26

Editor, I would not trade speaking, writing and living my conscience for any high-paying job pressing me to shut up my convictions. I would not trade living below the federal income tax level to refuse to pay for war — for all the money in the world. I would not trade mostly walking, sometimes riding the bus — for owning a luxury car.

Opinion

Column: We should expand our recognition of Indigenous people during holidays

Rebecca Brusseau | November 26

Thanksgiving has been well known for being controversial in its roots in the genocide of Indigenous peoples dating back to the original colonization of the Americas. The celebration of this holiday is a sensitive subject, as the arguments on both sides come from places of deep emotional ties. For individuals of indigenous lineage, Thanksgiving celebrates a portion of history that led to a devastating genocide that diminished their population by over ten million, according to EndGenocide.org. What some may see as a warm-hearted holiday that celebrates patriotic gratitude, the reality of what event this holiday honors has left a scar on the ethics of colonial America.