“What time is Earth Day?”
By Jonathan Fortner, April 21, 2013
Apathy toward both holidays — National Grilled Cheese Day and Earth Day — highlights a significant flaw in how we’ve been going about things for far too long.
The Earth quite literally deals with both life and death and should garner more respect than the above average and simple courtesy we show it during Earth Day celebrations once a year.
And no, your “garden” of herbs isn’t enough either.
No one is immune to this. My venus fly trap, Wyctor, contributes nothing to society. It’s all about me; it’s all in vain. He and I both know it.
As disgusting as it is to quote Shakespeare (whether accurately or not), is it “much ado about nothing” to discuss what Earth Day has inevitably become? Just another tedious task — on a Monday, no less?
The State Press
Arizona State University
http://www.statepress.com/2013/04/21/what-time-is-earth-day/
“Student loan repayment plans should be based on income, individual ability”
By Eitan Arom, April 19, 2013
In the budget proposal he released earlier this month, President Barack Obama suggested the interest rates on student loans be tied to the rate at which the government borrows from private lenders.
Such a measure would afford protection to the government agencies that manage student loans. But lawmakers have yet to adopt legislation that protects student borrowers, who collectively, as of last year, held about one trillion dollars in loan debt.
In June 2012, Congress tabled the debate on student loans with a stopgap measure that froze interest rates on federal Stafford loans until July 1, 2013. With that date drawing ever nearer, prospective students and parents cannot afford to give Congress another extension.
The Daily Bruin
University of California, Los Angeles
“Refusing to discuss divestment is divisive”
By Jason Kaufman, April 17, 2013
I will raise the same question posed in a 2010 article by City University of New York Associate Professor Peter Beinart. Beinart presents a group of Israeli students who protest the eviction of a Palestinian family and asks, “What if American Jewish organizations brought these young people to speak at Hillel? What if this was the face of Zionism shown to America’s Jewish young?” Beinart supposes “an uncomfortable Zionism, a Zionism angry at what Israel risks becoming, and in love with what it still could be.”
I hope that severing ties with Stanford’s Jewish community is not the only means to rid my embarrassment of, and discomfort with, its refusal to discuss what is, quite undeniably, a human rights abomination. If we as a community choose to ignore my argument entirely and continue to silence certain discussions, I urge us to find other mediums through which to talk constructively about Israel and Palestine.
The Stanford Daily
Stanford University
http://www.stanforddaily.com/2013/04/17/refusing-to-discuss-divestment-is-divisive/
“After divestment”
By Jason Willick, April 22
A generational shift in attitudes toward Israel would be welcome if it meant that America would do more to pressure Israel to make the painful territorial concessions that will be necessary to any peace agreement. This would be an act of friendship.
But Israel supporters of all political stripes must continue to do all they can to make sure that our generation isn’t won over by the destructive attitudes expressed in the senate chambers last week, where divestment activists chose militancy over moderation and demonization over dialogue.
The Daily Californian
University of California, Berkeley
