“O’Gara: The importance of bringing opinions back to the Emerald”
By Jacob O’Gara

Despite all this, despite the unprofessionalism and flagrant negligence of the best journalistic practices by these founding publishers, we live in the country they built, one pamphlet at a time. Despite all of their faults — and there were many — these “infamous scribblers,” as George Washington called them, obviously spoke to something real at the core of the human condition or whatever you want to call it. They showed that the truth needs advocates. That beyond just reporting the facts, a newspaper’s role is to give opinions, to persuade, to agitate.

The Emerald
University of Oregon

“New immigration bill full of unrealistic goals”
By Elizabeth Cutbirth

“It raises the question of whether it’s actually achievable, and whether it will end up thwarting the path to citizenship for 11 million people,” Frank Sharry, executive director of the group America’s Voice, told The Wall Street Journal.

How will the nation determine whether the border is “secure?” How many fences, resources, enforcement, technology and taxpayer dollars will it take to implement this proposal? How will the success of “border security” be measured? How much will immigrants pay in fees and fines for this legislation? What will ensue if the measures are not met within the timeframe?

These are all realistic questions that have yet to be answered by this idealistic proposal.

The Daily Trojan
University of Southern California

“US should not focus on immigration”
By Erik Johnson

These non-citizens — whose presence in the United States is criminal and disrespectful of our laws — should be given the bargaining high ground. The undocumented will allow certain bureaucratic loopholes but damn those processes that might encumber them. Politicians should spend less time courting American citizens — their constituents — and more time pandering to illegal immigrants.

The presumption and lack of irony in both Gutierrez’s arguments and Alvarez’s letter is utterly ludicrous and would be laughable if immigration reform was not such a large issue.

The Daily Utah Chronicle
The University of Utah

“Be a hero or need a hero?”
By Esther Drown

I do need a hero. You need a hero, too. In a culture floundering and squabbling, we need heroes to symbolize the morality existing beyond ourselves. At the same time, we need to be heroes for other people, to live as examples of the same morality and self-sacrifice we wish to see in others. Marvel’s poor choice of words banked on the anxiety of women facing an increasingly vicious world to buy into safe, passive rhetoric. It seems to have forgotten that in order for heroes to exist at all, male or female, individuals have to face that vicious world and make the choices that are hard. So be a hero. We need heroes.

The State Press
Arizona State University