Opinion - The Daily Lobo

Opinion

Letter: UNM should be careful with upcoming Banner overhaul

Daily Lobo Readers | November 19

Editor, While I was pleasantly surprised at the news that Banner is undergoing a “massive overhaul,” I immediately felt a sense of dread as I read the UNM News story, "Campus-wide system undergoing massive overhaul” (Nov. 15). That dread deepened when I read the Banner 9 information page linked in the article. There is a timeline at the very bottom of that webpage. I panicked when I saw that the number of hours dedicated to the “Reach out and Touch Someone” phase, which includes user training among other tasks, is only six hours for the “customer team.” I am assuming, of course, that the “customer team” is providing, or at least overseeing, the end-user testing, because I cannot find this phase of the rollout anywhere else in the project plan.

Opinion

Column: UNM needs to tackle enrollment rate problem

Rebecca Brusseau | November 19

As Lobos, we naturally want the best for our University, but there are setbacks that are reflected in the decreasing enrollment rates, which cannot be ignored. Poor and decreasing enrollment numbers can cause a snowball effect of hardships at the University of New Mexico. In the past year, UNM has seen almost a 6 percent drop in freshman enrollment. There is a range of issues contributing to poor enrollment numbers in recent years, but largely the issues are in terms of finances.

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

BioBlog: How meditation can help with your health

Zachary Fry | November 17

Editor's Note: This piece was originally published online in the UNM BioBlog on Oct. 25, 2017, written by Zachary Fry. This is part of our project to help connect the Daily Lobo audience to more members of our community. Sa-ta-na-ma.

Opinion

Letter: No to "America First"

Daily Lobo Readers | November 15

Editor, If this nation stopped stealing and hogging the world’s wealth, if this nation stopped murdering moms, dads and kids in many nations, the United States would have far less enemies! My country is the world. I want all 7 plus billion people on Earth to be treated fairly! HELL NO to America first! I do not pledge allegiance to the U.S. flag or to any nation’s flag. I strongly support this city to be a safe place for refugees and for undocumented people.

Opinion

Letter: "Honest Ads Act" undermines right to free political speech

Daily Lobo Readers | November 15

Editor, Wikipedia defines "moral panic" as "a feeling of fear spread among a large number of people that some evil threatens the well-being of society" and notes that "A Dictionary of Sociology" attributes the cultivation of moral panics to "moral entrepreneurs and the mass media." We're well into the second year of a moral panic drummed up by Democrats and "Never Trump" Republicans for the purpose of nullifying the outcome of the 2016 presidential election — removing U.S. President Donald Trump from office or making him a four-year de facto lame duck — by blaming his upset victory on "Russian meddling."

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.

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.