All Entries in the "Opinion" Category
Texting ban will be hard to enforce
By ELIZABETH PETERSON
Being a somewhat natural skeptic, I think law enforcement will have a tough time proving that someone was actually texting while driving after Tucson’s texting ban takes effect April 1.
The ordinance says people who are caught texting while the car is in motion will pay a minimum $100 fine. The minimum penalty increases to $250 if the driver is involved in a crash.
Several cities and states have already passed similar ordinances, and have faced challenges enforcing the law. The reason: It is easily disputable and hard to prove.
For instance, who’s to say I wasn’t legally using a GPS on my phone, dialing a phone number, checking the time or playing music? Today’s technology provides endless reasons to be on your phone, making a texting ban nearly impossible to prove and uphold.
Phoenix was the first city in Arizona to issue a similar texting ban in 2007. It proved to be inefficient, and city officials have since changed the law. It’s now illegal to use any electronic devices while driving inside the Phoenix city limits.
I think we can all agree that texting while driving is dangerous and should not be done. That’s not the issue.
However, Tucson needs to follow in Phoenix’s footsteps to create a more enforceable and permanent solution. Tucson should pass a more extreme law banning the use of cellular or electrical devices in all capacities while operating a vehicle.
Until that happens, Tucson’s ban will only serve as a scare tactic.
Even if Tucson does eventually implement a stricter device ordinance, however, people can always find ways to avoid the law. Regulations are not guaranteed to make the streets any safer.
The National Transportation Safety Board has suggested that all 50 states ban the use of electronic devices while driving, including hands-free devices.
These recommendations are made with good intentions but studies have shown that the laws have little to no effect on traffic accidents.
All or nothing, Tucson. Tougher cell phone laws are necessary for any improvements in safe driving habits.
Peterson admits to texting at stop lights but rarely uses her phone at all while driving.
Terrible luck: when it rains, it pours
By MEGYN FITZGERALD
Is it just me, or does bad luck amass quickly? Once something goes wrong, it’s all downhill from there.
You wake up five minutes late and your entire day is already in potential ruins. Those five minutes turn into 10 by the time you finish showering, and 15 once you notice the mess your dog made while you slept.
Fifteen minutes late is officially “no time for coffee” territory, which, let’s be honest, leaves you without the energy to even attempt to get your day back on track.
Before you know it, you’ve got a speeding ticket, your boyfriend is mad at you and you’re crying in a bathroom stall because you’re a quarter short for a Dr Pepper from the vending machine. Tragic.
I’ve made it a personal goal to learn how to get out of the bad luck funk before my entire day is ruined. My terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day endurance was put to the test on Saturday, Feb. 25.
On this particular day, I awoke early to go look at my impending new car. Upon arriving at the lot, I learned the car was at a maintenance lot that’s closed on weekends.
Great. Regardless, I left smiling, unwilling to let this ruin my day.
I went home to print my tickets to the Broadway play “Wicked,” which I was going to see that evening in Phoenix. But, wait, what’s this? The performance starts at 2 p.m.? That can’t be right.
Turns out it could be. It’s also possible that, since I waited until 1:30 to print the tickets, there wasn’t a chance in hell that I could make it to Phoenix in time. I also may have passed up insuring my $250 investment, and completely lost it.
At this point, all positivity went out the window. Even my boyfriend’s mere mention of staying positive was met with snarling and clawing. Not only was I forced to miss out on a Broadway phenomenon, but I single-handedly flushed $250 down the toilet.
There was a tiny light at the end of the tunnel though. Things couldn’t possibly get any worse, and that comforted me. Until I looked under my bed and found my dog eating my new pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses.
This is the part where I broke down into a puddle of sad, pathetic tears and decided to go to sleep before I tripped over my shoelace and flew out of a second story window or something. How is it even possible for a day to go so wrong?
Fitzgerald is currently taking donations to the “Help Megyn make up for missing ‘Wicked’” fund.
CRACKING WISE: Paintball that town red
By DAVID MENDEZ
It has come to my attention that there’s a whole town for sale in southern Wyoming.
According to an Associated Press report, the town of Buford will be auctioned by the town’s mayor and only resident, Don Sammons. His asking price? A low, low $100,000.
For that cool hundred grand, buyers get themselves a house, gas station, garage, convenience store, school house, cabin and 10 acres of land.
Sammons plans to move out, so the new owner gets a personal ZIP code and full control of the town’s civic government.
Which begs the question: What one man (or woman) could hold all that power? I mean, 10 acres smack on the edge of southern Wyoming, populated by you and only you?
That brings to mind something straight out of “I Am Legend.” Or, given the rural setting, “The Walking Dead” without the mutants, zombies or products of failed genetic experiments.
Sure, as an only child and latchkey kid, running a town all by my lonesome probably wouldn’t be much different from the way I spent my childhood.
But how could a place like that be financially viable? How do you market “The Nation’s Smallest Town” into something worth owning?
One word: paintball.
Seriously, think about it. You’ve got six buildings on 10 acres of land, in the complete middle of nowhere.
You could stick with the “gas station and gift shop” route, or you could turn the town into a literal “Paintball, USA” and fulfill the dreams of high school kids too young to own guns and convicted felons who can’t buy them.
Hell, keep the gas station and gift shop open. Make them part of the live-fire area. Slow people would be moving cover for players.
Of course, my knowledge of paintball is limited to the three paintball-centric episodes of “Community” on NBC (shameless unpaid promotion: Watch it on Thursday nights at 8 p.m.) and the two or three professional paintball games I’ve seen on ESPN2.
But c’mon: What self-respecting mayor wouldn’t want to (literally) paint his own town red?
Spring Break should include family time
By CELESTE ORENDAIN
Spring Break is around the corner. That means it’s time to show your toes, wear your sunglasses and use lots of sunscreen.
When I was little, my Spring Break always took place during the week of Easter. My mom would decorate my Easter basket with bright colors. On Easter Sunday, I got to look for candy and eggs.
Sometimes I would help my mom make seafood for the whole family. We also visited church to see a special resurrection play.
Since starting college, things have changed. Now Spring Break represents something different: a time to have fun.
The week off means taking a recess from all of our hard school work. Some students plan a trip to the beach with friends, while others just want to go out and party.
For me, it’s more than just a break. It’s welcoming the amazing smell of flowers and the bright sun. It’s one of the times I feel close to nature and leave my electronic gear alone for a while.
Although it seems like lots of fun, Spring Break is also a time when a lot of accidents occur. Even though we know what can happen, we sometimes still act like irresponsible kids.
For me, the break still means having time with my family and enjoying good times at a park or somewhere similar.
As a young adult, I feel a need to teach younger family members what my parents taught me when I was their age. For example, I’m going to take some time during my break to show my nephew how to paint eggs.
Today, although I don’t do the same things I did when I was little, being with the ones I love is still what matters most.
Orendain plans to relax, have fun and enjoy her family as much as possible over Spring Break this year.
Boo to St. Patty’s Day binge drinking
By NINA ELLIOTT
St. Patrick’s Day celebrations in the United States are the worst. I have seen and will continue to see a lot of people binge drinking on St. Patrick’s Day.
I don’t know which is worse, St. Patrick’s Day drinking or Cinco de Mayo drinking. I compare the two holidays because both have been culturally appropriated from other countries.
St. Patrick was a missionary to Ireland in 432 A.D. Although one of many, he is widely recognized as the one who converted Ireland’s polytheistic people.
It is argued that St. Patrick was actually a violent and cruel missionary to the Celtic tribes who resisted conversion. Documentation exists that he mismanaged money, resulting in legal trouble.
It should also be noted that St. Patrick was originally associated with the color blue instead of green.
St. Patrick’s Day was established as a day of feasting by the Irish people and later became a day of holy obligation. It was not a recognized holiday until 1903.
The government of Ireland closed all bars on the religious day to prevent public drunkenness. Until the 2000s, the Irish celebrated St. Patrick’s Day as a day for family feasts, prayer and church services.
The closing of bars on St. Patrick’s Day was lifted in the 1970s. As a tactic for tourism in the 1990s, the Irish government encouraged celebration of the holiday with widely publicized parades.
Two factors are behind making this religious holiday a day of heavy drinking: Lenten fasts end around this time and Irish immigrant communities want to celebrate their heritage. In 2008 there were 36 million Irish Americans, compared to 4.4 million people in Ireland.
In 2010, it was estimated that U.S. drinkers consumed 13 million pints of Guinness on St. Patrick’s Day.
St. Patrick’s Day is now a secular holiday for anyone to participate in. It is also a celebration of capitalism. Consider all the “Irish Pub” themed bars you’ve seen and how they profit from associating proud Irish identity with binge drinking one green beer at a time.
Elliott is a full-time PCC student studying journalism. She will work on organic farms and ranches in Ireland this summer.
GUEST OPINION: New chapter begins at PCC
By SCOTT STEWART
A new chapter at Pima Community College began last week with the unanimous vote by the Board of Governors to appoint Suzanne Miles as interim chancellor. We are fortunate to have someone with her credentials at the helm at this critical juncture in the college’s history.
Dr. Miles is a 26-year veteran of PCC. Her knowledge of the institution and how it works is second to none. She has 30 years’ experience as an educator at the post-secondary level and is a seasoned administrator who most recently served as the college’s provost and president of one of our six campuses.
Dr. Miles is the ideal person to lead PCC as we launch a national search for a new chancellor. That search will not conclude until we find the best person we can for this critical post.
Dr. Miles demonstrated her abilities last year when she filled in for former Chancellor Roy Flores while he underwent quadruple by-pass surgery. The serious health issues he confronted in 2011 have not gone away. He can no longer fulfill the requirements of the job with the same level of intensity and commitment that he would like or the position requires.
Given this situation, the board had no choice but to amend Dr. Flores’ contract with PCC. We accomplished this in another unanimous vote last week and the end result will actually save about $400,000 of taxpayer money.
Dr. Flores had a contract – a legally binding agreement – that ran through June 2014. Had he worked through that date, the cost would have been approximately $1 million. We negotiated an agreement that will end in June 2013 at a cost of approximately $600,000.
The naming of an interim chancellor represents a pivot point in Pima’s history. It provides us with an opportunity to look back as we chart a course for the future.
I have had the honor to serve on the board since 1999. I know from my own experience just how dramatically college operations improved after March 2003, when Dr. Flores came on board. Our community expects PCC to be run well and use taxpayer resources wisely. We’ve done that over the past nine years.
That we survived the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression without layoffs or furloughs might be the best example of the kind of creative leadership provided by Dr. Flores.
The list of accomplishments also includes:
• The long overdue raising of admission standards.
• Ensuring the continuation of adult education.
• Introducing data-driven decisions and accountability.
• Addressing an annual $1 million deficit at our Community Campus.
• Closing non-productive centers that were a drain on PCC’s finances.
• Eliminating contracts that had little, if any benefit to the college or the community.
Dr. Flores has always been candid, even blunt. He is a no-nonsense guy in a field known for more than its share of nonsense. But I have no doubt that PCC is a better place thanks to his determination to examine our weaknesses, build on our strengths, clean up our problems and move us forward. I would not for one minute give up the results he achieved.
Deciding who will occupy the chancellor’s office is perhaps the single most important decision the Board of Governors can make. The search for a new chancellor should remind us of the reason we’re here – make that about 30,000 reasons. That’s how many students enroll at PCC each semester. For them, what goes on in our classrooms matters far more than the politics that play out in our board meeting room.
Guest contributor Scott Stewart, an optical engineer at Raytheon Systems Co., is the PCC Board of Governors member for District 4. He is serving as chairman for 2012.
Cracking Wise: Beard to be wild
By DAVID MENDEZ
I’ve got a confession: I don’t look good with a beard.
There. I’m out. I’ve said it.
See, with my face shape (which I’ll describe as “round-y” only because “adorable yet rugged” isn’t actually a shape), I tend to look like a furry oval. It doesn’t help that, at 24, I’m still somewhat patchy, which is a source of shame for me.
I can get two-thirds of the way there, but after that my face starts to resemble something like Chernobyl. Certain spots flourish, while others appear as if the earth has been salted and nothing will ever grow there again.
I’m not a mustache kind of guy either. The ideal mustache hair, of course, is something between the Kentucky Fried Chicken colonel and Burt Reynolds. For me, that spot doesn’t get bushy and manly. Instead, it becomes wispy and long — kind of like low-hanging moss.
I can’t do mutton chops (but who would?), soul patches (again with the moss), circle beards (the sides don’t connect) or anything beyond two days worth of scruff without looking creepy.
Were it not for my trademark chin-blanket goatee , I’d be completely clean-shaven. The goatee exists mostly because I’ve had it since high school and I’m almost certain that the skin under it is now milk-white.
Being clean-shaven would, for the most part, make me unusual among my peers.
Apparently, the resurgence of hipster fashion and the popularity of “no-shave November” has lead to a follicular frenzy among college-age males, and the occasional female with an unfortunate combination of genetics.
I suppose something about the idea of caveman solidarity kicked off these brotherhoods of beards and societies of ‘staches. However, I just don’t see the appeal in making yourself look as if you can’t afford to buy a razor or a sharpened piece of glass.
Sure, I see the benefit of bringing attention to causes such as prostate cancer awareness, which is championed by many advocates of no-shave November.
The idea of people liking me for something other than my raw ruggedness and attention to alliteration is also appealing.
But it doesn’t seem worth the itchiness, the jokes from my family or triggering my girlfriend’s childhood fears of Bigfoot.
Mendez is co-editor in chief of the Aztec Press. He is in desperate need of a new reason.
FROM THE ARCHIVES: 1970s comics reflect era’s culture, trends
By SIERRA RUSSELL
Aztec Press comics and illustrators have sparked imaginations, added humor and flair, created controversy and helped to reflect the times over the years.
Contributors were rarely granted much recognition. Typically, the most a reader saw of an illustrator’s identity were tiny initials scrawled in a corner.
However, the virtually anonymous artists captured details such as fashion and slang that escaped black-and-white text.
Many comic strips in the ‘70s contained terms like “far out,” “heavy” and “groovy,” often spoken by characters wearing feathered hair, v-necks and bell-bottoms.
Comics reflected the changing roles of women, too.
A 1973 comic strip depicted a scantily clad woman standing near a classroom, offering a young man “non-credit sexual education classes” — paid in advance, of course.
A year later, a comic showed a young woman standing with a sign reading, “Equal rights for women.” A man tells her, “No, I don’t think a woman’s place is just in the kitchen. I think they should clean up the rest of the house too.”
Comics also captured changing views on cigarettes.
Smoking was a controversial topic in the ‘70s. At the time, state law prohibited smoking in classrooms yet it was commonly practiced by both students and instructors.
A 1975 article reported, “Although the security department is charged with maintaining order, it is obviously impossible for their personnel to patrol every classroom to enforce the ban.”
It comes as no surprise that campus security was a popular target. One 1970s comic strip features an enormous figure dressed as a Western sheriff sitting atop a building.
A comic from 1974 shows a rabbit expressing his views on “streaking.” The illustration ran alongside an article discussing how students felt about shedding their clothes and racing through public areas.
At the time, PCC had been challenged by University of Arizona students who were streaking naked down halls and across courtyards. Streakers also raced through Tucson high schools, including Sahuaro and Canyon del Oro.
“Streaking is nothing new,” reporter Lynn Rogalsky wrote. “This exhilarating practice has been around ever since man appeared on the planet.”
Rogalsky said 60 percent of students polled said they would never streak. Some cited religious reasons and others said they were too modest.
A student who chose to remain anonymous said he would streak, but “only in warm weather. Also to protest the ridiculous uptightness of a society that seems to be against anything free or unlimited. I’d streak in front of the White House; what would be more symbolic?”
Janos Molnar said he declined the idea of streaking because, “All streakers are not created equal.”
On a similar note, Jeff Boltman said, “I’d only streak in my house, from the bathroom to my bedroom, with the curtains drawn.”
And Mike McQuade said, “I don’t think the pressure of the world has driven me to that extreme … yet.”
Athletic Voice: The name is fútbol, not soccer
By ROBERTO AVENDAÑO
Only in the United States and Canada is “the beautiful game” called soccer.
This ideological battle has existed for a long time. It will only increase now that “soccer” is gaining U.S. followers because of Major League Soccer and because both the male and female U.S. national teams participate in World Cups.
The United States is the only country in the world that plays American football at a professional level.
Meanwhile, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, known worldwide as FIFA, has 208 member countries. This tells me that 207 countries call the sport football, as it should be.
The logic is quite simple. The name is foot + ball. The ball is played with the feet of players during 97 percent of the match. It’s in the hands of the goalkeeper just 3 percent of the time.
In American football, the numbers change places. Most of the time, the ball is in the hands of players. So… why is it called football? It makes no sense. It’s like calling rugby English football or insisting that handball be called football.
As a native of Chile, this really bothers me. I know plenty of people from all over the world who also find it offensive.
It’s as if Americans think the rest of the world doesn’t matter and that things must be called by American names. The issue is not as serious as war or politics, but nonetheless it affects millions of people.
I am not saying that one sport is better than the other. I’m just saying that Americans should stop calling football “soccer.”
Photo By LARRY GAURANO
Why are we listening to these schmucks?
By THOMAS F. JOHNSON
Thirty years.
This is how long the Republican Party has dominated the agenda in American politics, thanks to the ascension of Ronald “Demon Lord” Reagan in 1980 and the Moral Majority’s emergence as a political juggernaut around that same time.
Even when the Democrats were in power, they had to play by Republican rules.
The Democratic Party has moved far to the right to curry public favor. In any other country, they’d be called centrists rather than liberals.
Republicans have gotten what they’ve wanted for 30 years, enacting everything they’ve asked for and then some. If what they say is true, they should’ve turned America into a utopia by now.
But, as you can see, they haven’t.
They said lowering taxes and easing regulations on the rich would create new jobs and “trickle down” to the lower classes.
But over the last 30 years, we’ve seen the working class sledgehammered by “job creators” shipping manufacturing and service jobs to China and India.
They support endless budget cuts to make the government small enough to drown in a bathtub. In doing so, they also ruined our infrastructure, leaving it crumbling and withering.
They’ve also drowned our school system, leaving us further unable to compete in a world where college is no longer merely optional and technology jobs are the way of the future.
They said the free market would keep the environment safe. And yet, by crippling any efforts to change to a sustainable energy infrastructure, we may be at the point where it is too late to halt global warming.
They said the financial industry could regulate itself, and we all know how that went.
The Republican Party has advocated many disparate hypotheses for what will produce the most prosperous, safe and clean America. Each hypotheses has crashed in flames.
So, I must ask the American public: Why are we still listening to these people?
Johnson genuinely thinks that Ronald Reagan was a Dungeons & Dragons-style Demon Lord.
Be part of the majority and vote
By AMY ZAMBRANO
Voting in any type of election, whether it’s local or the presidential elections, is the key to voicing your opinion and reflecting your views for the future of the country.
The founding fathers made it very clear that this is a democratic nation. Therefore, every eligible citizen is obligated to vote.
As Americans, we want our rights to be promptly met. For that to happen, we must be prompt in making decisions for ourselves. This means voting.
More than 35 percent of eligible voters fail to vote in every presidential election, making many excuses for why they don’t vote. Being busy or forgetting does not cut it when it comes to making a change, not only for ourselves but for everyone in America.
This high percentage of non-voters shows us that Americans might benefit from knowing the different voting options. There are many advantages to casting an early vote or voting by absentee ballot. So benefit from these alternatives, and make no excuse for not voting.
I hate listening to non-voters complain about how they don’t like the president’s system or certain laws or bills that are passed. When I ask them if they voted, they answer with a hesitant “yes” or a straight-out “no.”
People, if you don’t vote, please don’t complain about how things are being handled by our officials.
It’s impressive how everyone can make a difference in encouraging people to vote. Even non-frequent voters agree on how important it is to vote and how it makes you a good citizen.
As good citizens, we should encourage each other to vote. It is important to tell our family and friends to register and where they can do it. It does make a difference.
It is also imperative to know that, even if your party didn’t win in the past election or you don’t think your party will win again, you should still take the initiative and vote.
Making the “will of the majority” govern over the “will of the minority” is all there is to know about the importance of voting.
Zambrano is registered to vote and ready for the upcoming elections.
CRACKING WISE: Flores in familiar spot
By DAVID MENDEZ
It’s only been a month, but so far I feel comfortable saying that I’ve learned the following this semester, Pima:
The milkshake machine in the West Campus cafeteria — I can’t vouch for the other campuses, unfortunately — is among the best moneymaking decisions that Pima Community College (or its contractor, Sodexo) has made in years.
Why, if they had installed this earlier, they may not have had to close down the child care centers.
It likely would have happened anyway, though. After all, the money that was paid to recently-fired John Crnokrak, management consultant and executive coach extraordinaire, had to come from somewhere, right?
The dismissal of Crnokrak, who reported directly to PCC Chancellor Roy Flores, is another in a long list of issues he’s faced in his career.
Back when he was the president of Elgin (Ill.) Community College, Flores was accused by anonymous board members of mismanaging college funds one year into starting his job as Elgin’s top executive.
According to a Chicago Tribune news report, the ECC board of trustees claimed he overstepped his bounds by creating the position of vice president of instruction – a charge he disputed.
He was offered a $63,000 buyout to leave his position, which was later withdrawn.
Flores was shocked by the board’s accusations, saying he was unaware of the politics that play out in these situations and that he didn’t research the board’s divisive history before accepting the position.
He also said he didn’t experience any similar politics as a vice president at Virginia Community College.
He stayed at Elgin for two more years before accepting the top job at Allegheny Community College in Pennsylvania.
There, Flores hand-picked his executive assistant for the position of vice president of academic affairs – a man who was later fired for falsifying his credentials, according to a news story by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Flores, who was said to be friends with the assistant, said he was unaware of the false credentials.
According to an Arizona Daily Star news story, Crnokrak was discovered by Flores.
The chancellor was said to have read one of Crnokrak’s self-published books and saw ideas that he felt would be a good fit for PCC.
Crnokrak was recently let go after years of consulting when it was found he had a history of sending inappropriate messages to Pima administrators.
It certainly didn’t help that he billed years of cell phone bills, flights, meals, rental cars and, in one instance, a massage to the college.
In Flores’ eight years as Pima’s top executive, the college has grown considerably and is in a position to do so well into the future.
But the fact that he has a track record of denial regarding subjects he should have more than a passing familiarity with (office politics in a region famous for political ploys; a friend and long-time coworker’s resume; the personality of a consultant who had been working with Pima since 2006) makes one wonder what else Flores might claim ignorance of.
Given his recent heart troubles, he may have had to cut milkshakes out of his diet completely, which is a shame.
The ice cream might ease the sting of the scandals.
Mendez is co-editor in chief of the Aztec Press.
Stop Online Piracy Act a horrible idea
The federal Stop Online Piracy Act has caused quite the political uproar recently.
SOPA was introduced by Sen. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, on Oct. 26 and has been a source of controversy ever since.
Probably because it is a horrible idea.
SOPA is intended to expand the U.S. government’s ability to fight online trafficking of copyrighted intellectual property and unauthorized streaming of copyrighted material.
In regular people-speak, SOPA would essentially give the government the ability to censor the Internet.
Web censorship is the beginning of the end, my friends. It would not only be a blatant violation of the First Amendment, but would threaten innovation and drastically change the world.
The maximum penalty for “pirating” a single song would be five years in prison. To put that into perspective, Dr. Conrad Murray, who was convicted for the involuntary manslaughter of Michael Jackson, was only sent to prison for four years.
Many Internet fat cats, such as Google, Yahoo, Twitter, Facebook and Wikipedia, have voiced their opposition to SOPA, calling it the “Internet Blacklist Bill.”
The New York Times referred to it as the “Great Firewall of America.”
In an effort to show how SOPA would affect the Net, Wikipedia blacked out all of its pages for 24 hours on Jan. 18.
Instead of being taken to a page containing a plethora of information on Britney Spears or black holes, users were redirected to a page protesting SOPA.
During the blackout, more than 160 million users were unable to use the public encyclopedia, showing just how important Wikipedia actually is to the American people.
Regardless of whether Wikipedia is viewed as a credible reference source, it would be missed if forced to close.
It’s hard to believe there are actually companies that support SOPA. It’s as though, instead of reading the fine print, they stopped reading at “we’re trying to stop people from stealing your stuff.”
In the short term and in general, SOPA is an excellent idea because the founding fathers were obviously unable to foresee the invention of the World Wide Web. However, SOPA completely surpasses the line that laws shouldn’t cross: personal freedom.
After all the controversy caused by the bill, Congress tabled the proposal.
Luckily for America, President Obama is on our side. On Jan. 14, he finally spoke out against the bill and encouraged less restrictive and controversial legislation.
Fitzgerald loves the Internet far too much to ever allow a bill such as SOPA to pass.
Everybody wants to be respected
By MEGGIE COSTELLO-KESSLER
Revolution is in the air.
Political unrest has recently generated many forms of protesters. From Tea Party groups to the Occupy movements, it is clear that people of all political ideologies will no longer tolerate government corruption and greed.
Protesters can make a difference in policy. For example, on Jan. 18 numerous websites united in an Internet blackout to protest the Stop Online Piracy and Protect IP acts being considered by Congress. Their solidarity helped to put an end to the proposals.
I strongly support personal liberty and do not believe any other human has the right to take my freedom.
To make a difference, we should stop focusing on the labels of Democrat, Republican, conservative or liberal. These terms do nothing more than divide already divided people.
These labels further divide us from maintaining our personal freedom. We need to look past the terms and focus on how we can work together to stop the theft of our freedom and rights.
We need to accept our differences and move on, because we all want the same thing: our rights to be respected. If we unite, we will make a difference and send a message loud and clear to our government.
Democrats and Republicans are equally responsible.
Former Republican President George W. Bush sanctioned bailouts for banks, while President Obama, a Democrat, signed the controversial National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 into law.
People from both sides of the political spectrum are horrified by the potential of the National Defense Authorization Act to remove our Sixth Amendment rights to a speedy, public jury trial.
“I want to clarify that my administration will not authorize the indefinite military detention without trial of American citizens,” Obama said after signing the bill. “My administration will interpret Section 1021 in a manner that ensures that any detention it authorizes complies with the Constitution, the laws of war and all other applicable law.”
The next time you encounter another person with political beliefs that contradict yours, step back and realize that most people just want their rights respected.
Try to find common ground. You might make not only a difference but a friend for life.
Costello-Kessler spends her free time dreaming of travel, John Lennon and her future as an investigative journalist.
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