When a member of this nation’s majority race commits a hate crime against a minority, it is often from being emboldened by truly believing that they represent the majority view in committing even the most heinous acts. And given that there is such a thing as systemic prejudice, they can be right.
Now that some of the heat surrounding Colin Kaepernick has died down we can take a breath, step back and examine some of the greater and less obvious dynamics involved in the situation that seemed to send the nation into a frenzy a few weeks ago.
In general Americans don't know much about other parts of the world. We are after all raised on a steady diet of American exceptionalism which indoctrinates us from an early age to view ourselves as the best people in the world. If we then view ourselves as the best people in the world then it naturally follows that learning about the rest of the world might seem like a waste of time.
I could face torture, prison or execution in many nations if I spoke out publicly there as I do here. The United States strongly supports many bloody regimes now -- Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Pakistan, Mexico. The U.S. strongly supported many bloody past regimes -- El Salvador, the Philippines, Guatemala, Haiti, Chile, Iran, South Africa, Argentina, Indonesia...
The large numbers of drug addicts in our nation can breathe a sigh of relief on learning that our Surgeon General himself has now sent a letter to all fellow doctors in America, asserting that “we can shape how the rest of the country sees addiction by talking about and treating it as a chronic illness, not a moral failing.”
I recently picked up an old used bargain book titled ‘The Tyrants - 2,500 Years of Absolute Power And Corruption’. “Only true tyrants can display the iron will, bombastic ego and ruthless abuse of power necessary necessary to achieve whatever they wish, no matter how outrageous...” It is a terrifying and horrifying book about man’s inhumanity to man. #NeverAgain
Whenever any debate about immigration comes up I can't help but think of the Native American people. Why is it that I don't hear Natives droning on and on about people needing to "go back where they came from?" After all, were they not the original people to inhabit this land that we now call the United States of America.
The fight for equal rights is not a new one. Throughout history humanity, and certainly Americans, have had a constant struggle to be viewed and treated equally.
Over the summer, University of New Mexico administration updated its employee training. In doing so, the University entered the fray of a debate that has been dominating the higher education landscape recently, one centered on balancing meaningful discussion on uncomfortable issues while taking into consideration what might be considered a "trigger warning" for some people.
In a recent conversation with a friend about NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick's refusal to stand for the national anthem, my friend questioned Kaepernick's sincerity. My friend said, "This guy has played in the NFL for years and all of a sudden he gives a damn about race relations?" The simple fact of the matter is that people can change and only God really knows whats in a man or woman's heart.
Would a loving human parent slam and lock the door forever against a son or daughter regardless what evil they have done? Would a loving parent God sentence billions of people, or even one person, to never-ending torture with no pardon, no parole? To all who believe in God, do you believe in hell? I would never want to spend eternity with such a cruel monster God!
While I am upset that Dallas Cowboys starting quarterback Tony Romo is sidelined because of a back injury, I find myself more upset by the fact that the Turkish government has sent its military into Syria.
Hi my name is Kyle Laktasic, I was one of the two co-founders of BLACKPIN Inc. which was recently acquired by Innovo Technologies in Irvine, California. About a year and a half ago another UNM Student Jordan Medlock and I decided to start a company based on the idea we could use advance programing techniques to make the "things" around us much more capable then in their current state of not being interconnected.
On August 23, the US Department of Agriculture announced its plan to purchase 11 million pounds of cheese, at a cost of $20 million. The cheese will be "provided to families in need through USDA nutrition assistance programs," but the real purpose of the purchase is to reduce excess cheese inventories, "assisting the stalled marketplace for dairy producers whose revenues have dropped 35 percent over the past two years.
Do most college graduates live more wisely than minimum wage worker who never went to high school? Do most college graduates travel less, pollute less, cause less global climate chaos? Do most college graduates pay less federal income tax for war? Do most college graduates consume less and live more simply and fairly in our world family of more than seven billion people?
A newspaper – or any local media form – is only as strong and diverse as the community it serves. Luckily for us at the Daily Lobo, the community at the University of New Mexico fits the bill. And over the next nine months, we pledge to do the best we can to appeal to that strength, working to bring you the highest caliber of news and content that we possibly can on a regular basis.
The gun violence perpetrated in the US by radical Islamists is but a fraction of our overall gun violence. Just in the arena of murders that are drug-related, the toll is far greater. You think the gang bangers in our inner cities are not terrorists in every sense of the term, terrorizing the neighborhoods they live in? The murders they have committed all these decades have been far worse than any mass shooter of the jihadi kind.
Sexual assault is arguably the most disturbing issue on our college campuses nationwide. At UNM, it has become a primary focus over the past few years, beginning with some high profile cases involving our students, and culminating in a Department of Justice review of our policies and procedures.
Editor, Do Asian lives matter too? Doesn’t look like it, if you see all these Asian store workers in inner cities across America being murdered in cold blood while their stores are robbed – that’s what they get in exchange for providing basic necessities and accepting food stamps and welfare cash.
I write this letter to express my concern and frustration with President Frank’s response to the Department of Justice’s Report of its investigation of the University of New Mexico’s failures regarding the investigation and response to reports of sexual assault and sexual harassment by its students, specifically President Frank’s comments that the DOJ’s report has a “lack of facts” and was just “anecdotal”.
Solutions by The State News
