Opinion - The Daily Lobo

Opinion

Letter: We should all be prepared for sudden acts of violence

Daily Lobo Readers | November 12

Editor, Our hearts go out to the people of Sutherland Springs, Texas. The First Baptist Church of this town and the entire community was ambushed in what resulted as the worst mass shooting in Texas history. Twenty-six people are dead, and many others are currently fighting for their lives in intensive care. This is heart-crushing for this Texas community and all of America, as we must conclude no place is safe in America anymore. My hometown church in Inez, Kentucky kept the backdoor of the church unlocked during most of my high school years. The church was a place where anyone could enter and pray and seek refuge from the problems of the world.

Opinion

Letter: Veterans Day should be about the promotion of peace

Daily Lobo Readers | November 12

Editor, In 1926, a concurrent resolution of the U.S. Congress held it "fitting that the recurring anniversary of (the armistice which brought World War One to an end) should be commemorated with thanksgiving and prayer and exercises designed to perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding between nations." In 1938, Congress enshrined Nov. 11 of each year as an American holiday "dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be hereafter celebrated and known as 'Armistice Day.'" Somewhere between 15 and 19 million human beings — one-third of them civilians — perished in World War I. Fitting, don't you think, to set aside a day each year for remembrance of the tragedy and for resolve against its repetition, however vain the latter hope might prove?

Opinion

Letter: UNM needs to improve campus security

Daily Lobo Readers | November 8

Editor, One of the best things about November is a cool fall breeze wafting in through an open window. This holds true at any other college campus, where students prop open dorm windows to get some air while studying. Where UNM separates itself from the pack is in how one can also listen to a group of homeless people get in a heated dispute in the R Lot through the open window.

Opinion

Letter: Football is violent and should not be celebrated

Daily Lobo Readers | November 8

Editor, I would be ashamed to watch a football game. I would be ashamed as hell to enjoy watching men brutally injure each other’s knees, shoulders, elbows, necks, brains...Many former football players suffer from concussions. They suffer depression, Alzheimer’s, severe headaches, alcoholism, other drug addiction, dementia, suicide, violence toward family and friends...The donated brains of 110 out of 111 dead former NFL players suffered serious brain disease. Is encouraging boys and men to play football less harmful than addicting them to cigarettes, booze or cocaine?

Opinion

Letter: Chickenhawk Donald — a complete and total disgrace

Daily Lobo Readers | November 5

Editor, On Nov. 3, U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who spent five years as a prisoner of the Taliban in Afghanistan, was sentenced to dishonorable discharge, reduction in rank to private and a $10,000 fine after pleading guilty to charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy. Without hesitation and displaying reckless disregard for his own reputation, U.S. President Donald Trump courageously mounted his keyboard and charged Twitter to pronounce the sentence "a complete and total disgrace to our Country and to our Military."

Opinion

Letter: Trump's threats against North Korea are a grave danger

Daily Lobo Readers | November 1

Editor, If we lived in North Korea and we heard the U.S. president with thousands of nuclear bombs at his command threaten to mass murder our nation of 25 million women, men and children when he spoke before the whole world at the United Nations last month, how would we feel?

Opinion

Letter: Will the real populism please stand up?

Daily Lobo Readers | November 1

Writing at The American Conservative, Mike Lofgren tears into the guts of "Billionaire at the Barricades: The Populist Revolution from Reagan to Trump," the latest book by Republican political commentator Laura Ingraham. Lofgren's two key points — that Donald Trump is no populist, and that conservatism is not populism —are well-made. "A cynic," he writes, "would conclude that the term populism, when applied to Republican politics in 2017, means this: keep the rich up, the poor down, foreigners out and everybody else distracted by scapegoats. Meanwhile, line your pockets at the public trough...and fill your top posts with enough billionaires to make George W. Bush's cabinet look like a Soviet Workers' Council."

Opinion

Letter: Tim Keller stands for the poor, unlike Lewis

Daily Lobo Readers | October 29

Editor, I would like to take this opportunity to encourage my fellow Burqueños to vote for Tim Keller in the upcoming mayoral run off election.

Opinion

Letter: Do your part to prevent wildfire — be cautious

Daily Lobo Readers | October 29

Editor, California is on fire, and the neighboring states are not aware. Families are losing everything, from personal belongings to cash savings.

Opinion

Guest Column: "Three Peoples" mural unchanged after decades of protest

Guest Columnist and Samuel Sisneros | October 29

Construction of the original UNM library building (later named Zimmerman Library) including the “Grand Hall” and its east wall with recessed bays was completed in 1938. It has been stated that the architect John Gaw Meem originally intended to include the “Three Peoples” paintings by Kenneth Adams in the building plans although there are no notations of any works of art for the bay walls in the 1935-1938 interior floor plans. Regardless, the canvas paintings were inserted into the four wall bays in late 1939. Whether Meem initially intended them to be included as part of building or it was a decorative afterthought, what is certain and well documented is that the then UNM President James F. Zimmerman had a major hand in the conception and completion of the “Three Peoples” paintings.

Opinion

Letter: Make Albuquerque more sustainable by streamlining glass recycling

Daily Lobo Readers | October 29

Editor, I am a student at the University of New Mexico, and one of my largest concerns is that in Albuquerque and Rio Rancho, you have to bring your glass recyclables to the few recycling facilities will accept it.

Opinion

Letter: Students should support the EPA and the Clean Power Plan

Daily Lobo Readers | October 29

Editor, As a UNM student, I am worried about the future of public and environmental health.

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.

Opinion

Letter: Hillary Clinton — Cold creepiness with a side of corruption

Daily Lobo Readers | October 25

Editor, On Oct. 16, failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton took her public pity party (and not so subtle hopes of somehow magically overturning the 2016 election) abroad, calling out WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange as "a tool of Russian intelligence...a kind of nihilistic opportunist who does the bidding of a dictator" in an interview on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's show, "Four Corners." Clinton's evidenceless accusations don't seem to carry much weight with Assange himself. He doesn't find her "a credible person." "It is not just her constant lying," he says. "It is not just that she throws off menacing glares and seethes thwarted entitlement. Something much darker rides along with it. A cold creepiness rarely seen."

Opinion

Letter: Trump's antics threaten the world with war

Daily Lobo Readers | October 25

Editor, Former State Department Advisor Eliot Cohen recently gave a blunt, but frank assessment of the current White House Occupant. His words are a warning for worse things to come. Cohen sees in the so-called President “a reprehensible human being” whose “rotten character...plays to the worst instincts,” which makes the man “extremely erratic” in a stunningly predictable fashion. Given the (inter)national predicament, the country is extremely lucky to have “a benign junta” that keeps the “somewhat crazy President” in relative check. Yet even the generals in the administration cannot contain the dangerous “ignorance” of “his (adolescent) ego” which keeps lashing out at anyone who dares to question his impulsive narcissism. A lifelong addictive self-obsession has made the so-called President chronically sick with himself. Hence, Cohen concludes, “He’s a liar, a bully, an ignoramus and a demagogue.”

Opinion

BioBlog: The Time Conundrum

Guest Columnist | October 22

Editor's Note: This piece was originally published online in the UNM BioBlog on Feb. 12, 2015, written by Bryan McLean. This is part of our project to help connect the Daily Lobo audience to more members of our community. Everything in biology has a history. Biodiversity waxes and wanes.

Opinion

Letter: Black Student Alliance supports Lobo athletes kneeling during national anthem

Daily Lobo Readers | October 22

Editor, The Black Student Alliance is in full, unwavering support of our student athletes’ decision to kneel during the national anthem. It is their right as American citizens to peacefully protest — when and where they choose to exercise this most basic of human rights, as Americans, is completely up to their discretion. As student athletes and respective leaders within their communities, they are not infringing upon the rights of others, but instead advocating for their own and protecting others'.

Opinion

Letter: War with Iran would be indefensible

Daily Lobo Readers | October 22

Editor, As many analysts had expected, President Trump recently declined to re-certify Iran's compliance with the nuclear agreement reached under the Obama administration. Then-President Obama repeatedly stated that he preferred this diplomatic solution over another unnecessary war in the Middle East or a nuclear armed Iran. While it is still too early to say where this new action will lead, this could be the first step toward a war in the Middle East similar to George W Bush's bloody and unsuccessful occupation of Iraq back in 2003.

Opinion

Letter: Indigenous peoples should be respected on campus

Daily Lobo Readers | October 18

Editor, On Sept. 13, 2017, I presented a research poster titled “The Strength of the Native American Vote: How Voting Attitudes Among Native American Students Affects Political Participation,” for the Ronald E. McNair Scholars and Research Opportunity Program, inside the Student Union Building. My research focuses on how Native American students, who attend the University of New Mexico, feel about voting and political systems. I knew people were going to come by my poster and possibly ask me questions or have me summarize my research and data I collected, all situations expected at research conferences.