Archive for the ‘Student Articles’ Category
000 troops sent to Afghanistan, 30, 30k more troops, Afghanistan War, alternative politics, American Dream is Dead, broken promises by Barack Obama, DNC, End The Two Party System, Green Party 2012, Obama Lies about troops, treason, Troop withdrawl, vote independent
In Independent Candidates, National Level, Student Articles on December 2, 2009 at 2:19 am
The status quo is not sustainable, the inevitable will come crashing down. The amount of time we have spent in the Middle East is a complete utter waste of time and money. Obama announced this evening in his address to the nation that he would push 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan.
The poison is the government. The ingredients are corruption, capitalism, and arrogance, with an extra dose of bullshit. Those who question are looked at as radicals, naive, and crazy. No! We are thinkers, we are critical of the decisions being made by our elected officials. What are we exactly planning to do? Do you think we will be able to save the people of Afghanistan and fix their corrupt government? Never going to happen, ever! There is no end to this war. The infusion of troops will lead to more death and more wasteful money spent. How can you logically support this act? What the hell is wrong with this picture!
Why trust our government anymore, what exactly have they done to gain our respect and trust? When are we going to give alternatives a chance? When are people going to realize that our country is being flushed down the toilet one wet hot sloppy dump at a time?
-Jack C. Buck
current mood: livid
Barack Obama fails to support gay community, broken promises by Barack Obama, Election Day in Maine, gay activist, Gay Rights in America, Maine, Maine Voters, same-sex marriages in Maine, Tuesday's Maine election
In National Level, Student Articles on November 5, 2009 at 4:59 pm
What a disappointment on Election Day, specifically the state of Maine. It was suppose to be different this time around. Maine was the first state to have legalized gay marriage. When this was challenged by the conservative-right, supporters hoped that political backing of the governor and President Obama, adding on with Maine’s open independent ideology would provide the breakthrough that gay-marriage supporters have been yearning for from the very start. But, this wasn’t the case at all. To put it lightly, Barack Obama failed, and he failed drastically for the gay community. He made promises on his campaign trail last year that he would fight day and day for equal gay rights. So the question is where was he? Did anyone else see him on the television standing behind gay activist? I sure as hell did not; all I viewed was his three or four visits to support the democratic candidate for governor.
This makes our country look arrogant and stuck in the ways of the hardcore religious right. We have over 300 million humans living in our country’s boarder, with pockets of diversity that stretch across state lines, yet we fail once again to show our true colors. Actually, maybe we just have. A state like Maine, who is known in the gay community as openly accepting individual choices for sexual preference, failed to win on Tuesday night. The closely watched issue ultimately ended up being the leading issue that most citizens were concerned about. Maine voters came out to vote by the droves, and the opposition prevailed 53 percent to 47 percent. As the growing numbers of states demand the right for same-sex marriages increases there is a needy resolution that needs to be solved. We cannot simply ignore this fact. If we do, ultimately it is inevitable that it will lead to direct violence and back lashing.
-Jack C. Buck
See Time Magazine’s visual history of gay rights in America
1984, Aldous Huxley, corrupt politicans, democracy problems, Doomed Love for America, George Orwell politics, grand illusion in politics, one voice in politics, political activism is lost, political party alignment, progressive liberals, social and political barriers, third-party politics
In Activism, Student Articles on November 5, 2009 at 3:59 pm
The Whole Fucking Thing
Is democracy worth all the problems and potential personal risks? Or, would I be more content if I gave it all up and ignored what is wrong? Only dark lonely still nights do I feel it is all a lost cause.
Our social and political views are barriers that will never be dissembled, the steel screws are twisted in far too tight. Hate has put us into contempt and dishonesty towards others-solely because we look at them as ” different” or “weird”. I am beginning to separate myself from fellow bystanders and friends when discussion of politics comes to the forefront of friendly conversation. My once loud voice and fierce argument points against the two-political machines has begun to drive me to this unknown crossroad. Do I ferociously push the limit with everything I have in me? Or do I put out a pathetic, but yet somewhat honorable, attempt at turning what is wrong into what is right.
I do not buy into the stance of political alignment- I shouldn’t have to label myself with a group that I do not wholeheartedly believe in. Nor neither should you.
Why? How dare you settle for mediocrity! Blast, truth has turned its back on us. It shows on election day, how minuscule the alternative candidates and leaders are taken seriously. For they are not even a dot on the map. You would think that a progressive liberal state, such as California, would demand our president to hold to his promises. I guess accountability doesn’t matter.
Why do we continue this misguided falsified path. Every few years a small percentage of us show up at the polling booths to cast our patriotic vote. If you really care so dearly about your country, then why don’t you demand honesty? Why do you let Wall-Street and corrupt politicians decide what is right or wrong?
Aldous Huxley and George Orwell had no faith in the future of democracy, nor do I. If I were a rich gambling man, gambler…yes, rich far from, I would bet everything that the whole house will soon come crashing down- the grand illusion and all. I say awake, awake, awake youth! Until then, I remain.
-Jack C. Buck
To purchase George Orwell’s 1984 Click Here!
fear and freedom, fear-mongering, FOF mechanism, freedom, media control, Ryan Lane
In Student Articles on November 1, 2009 at 8:44 pm
Firstly, Fear is interesting and an irrational waste of time. It robs natural beings of truly living, feeling, and experiencing. Life, the moment, all that exists, is way too precious to waste on a psychotic obsession with survival, which has been the message pounded into our western brains since birth, crippling our existential ability to seek a truly fulfilling existence.
The cliché, “It’s not about the years in your life but the life in your years.”has never been more pertinent to a time, a time when natural beings are marginalized, forced into cubicles and factories just to achieve survival, and stripped of their freedom to live as they wish. There has to be something more than this.
In a time when our existence, our organism, much of this earth, struggles to survive like a flake of nearly dead skin holding on for dear life, it is time to start opening our eyes and start asking questions. Is this war torn, competitive, cut-throat, alienating, us vs. them human population with outrageously destructive technological abilities going to get us anything but mass extinction? Definitely not. Things need to change. That change is upon us.
This same fear exists in no other organism on our planet. Our brain doesn’t know the astounding difference between our Fight or Flight reaction and this illusory fear we have while worrying. Every time we worry about anything irrelevant to the moment/environment we are currently inside of, our FOF mechanism is sounded off throwing our biology into high strain for no reason at all. This plagues our culture. Very few of us will ever experience true FOF release more than a few times in our whole lives.
You may just say, “Well, that’s just the way we’re made.” The problem with that statement is that we are completely or nearly all learned organisms. We were knowingly taught this behavior. Fear is the absence of freedom.
The allocation of blood in our bodies at any one time depends on our psychological state. In times of danger or the illusion of danger, our blood spreads out to all areas of our body preparing itself for optimum survival performance. In times of growth, much of our blood concentrates at our core or our viscera. This is when rational thought and personal growth are most easily attained. In our paranoid society obsessed with terror and national security, this state of growth is a rare occurrence to most. We have a lot of strenuous catching up to do. Let us stop this whole fear-mongering, do not let the media, politicians, business leaders, the uber-rich instill fear into our systems. It is time for us as individuals to stand together and take back our society and country.
-Ryan Xavier O’Luain
Irish American
Andrew Neal, Central Beat with Andrew Neal, Central Michigan University, first amendment, In God We Trust, Jesus Camp, Love and First Sight, no national religion, Pledge of Allegiance, Religion and Government, Religious, The Freedom of Religion, Third Party Movement, under god, WMHW Central Beat, WMHW.org
In National Level, Religion and Government, Student Articles on October 27, 2009 at 4:43 am
The Freedom of Religion is a granted right in the first amendment of the Constitution. As a US citizen, we all have the right to choose any religion we want: Christianity, Judaism, Hindu, etc. Therefore, from birth, The United States addressed that there will be no national religion; one should not be held higher above the other in this country since this country is supposed to represent the people (all of the people). Now I ask, who didn’t get that memo?
My parents gave me the choice to discover the religion that best suits me, if there be one out there at all. Although they had been raised with strict demands as to what religion they would become, they wanted their kids to figure it out for themselves. It was up to me to find my own religion, not just adopt theirs. After a few years of experiencing and learning about different religions, I found Buddhism. It represented my philosophical beliefs as well as enlightened me to new ideas that I had never before considered. I also liked the fact that this religion never gave answers to the unfathomable questions (Where did we come from, Who created us, How will it end, etc), it just focused on being a better person each consecutive day you live your life, until the last. To me, it’s less of a religion and more like encouragement towards a rewarding life. To this day, I consider myself a proud Buddhist who is learning new things about myself and my religion each day, and am not ashamed to admit that I will never truly understand the extent of either.
It’s hard to think of where I should start when trying to give examples of how religion has penetrated government. It would be appropriate to mention that religion has always been intertwined in power. As far back as the Mayans, Egyptians, and Romans, there was always a collective religion. The United States is one of the first real attempts by a dominating world superpower to try and maintain freedom of religion (so far). Read More
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American Debt, End The Fed, J.P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, Paul Warburg, Ron Paul, The Federal Reserve problems, The Third Party Movement, Thomas Jefferson, Woodrow Wilson
In National Level, Student Articles on October 25, 2009 at 10:51 pm
What is The Federal Reserve? Who runs it? What does it do? This is what many people now are asking now. The Federal Reserve was instituted in 1913 by Woodrow Wilson.
After passing the Act Woodrow Wilson said, “I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated governments in the civilized world. No longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men.”
The names of John D. Rockefeller, J.P. Morgan, and Paul Warburg who were some of the wealthiest man in the country who were pushing heavy for the Fed Reserve. Many Americans didn’t understand what the idea was behind this new sector.
The name is a cover, Federal Reserve. It’s a corporation that controls our money supplies, that is completely separate from our government. What the Federal Reserve does is print money out of thin air. Basic economics states that the larger the supply, lower the value of our money. The people who run the Federal Reserve are a Board of Directors and one head chairman. Not elected at all, just chosen.
What happened in 1935 was; we as a country became bankrupt. The Federal Reserve then asked who will pay the debt off that you owe us. The government said the American people will pay off the debt. How were we supposed to pay off the debt? We American had to use the Federal Reserve note. A note is a debt instrument meaning that we the American could never pay off the debt. One of the very things our founding fathers worried about. Thomas Jefferson when alive opposed any central bank in saying, “I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.”
-Brandon Jarzabkowski
End The Fed
Adventus, Mgrdich Ararat Sirabionian II, mS2a, Poetry by CMU student, Students for Independents, The Third Party Movement, uncle sam
In Poetry, Student Articles on October 23, 2009 at 9:19 pm
The more we discover about the world we live in
We start to question the method the country is driven
Who’s behind the wheel and why are we letting them drive
Rage against the machine, yet we keep it alive
To further our knowledge of the political science
We see it feeds off the ignorance and compliance
A population programmed by a media remote
A population that could affect change with a single vote
We easily sway by the mirrors and smoke
Used by They who want to provoke
They have become very good at lying to our face
They even use covert operations to put plans in place
They’re agenda lies with the people on Wall Street
Why can’t They remember the hard work of Main Street
We’re going to take a lesson in history
To find there’s a long line of this misery
From world war two to the one that went cold
Central intelligence wants their stories untold
We’ve been at war for over sixty years
Do we even know the MIC and why it appears
We saw the signs but chose not to notice
Can’t say Eisenhower never tried to warn us
We’re everyday people but we know right from wrong
Metal over flesh, why is the suffering allowed to prolong
Exhaustion of human lives, resources, and money
Everything has gotten so crazy that it’s funny
They have us caught in the consumer driven bubble
So deep that we couldn’t see the world was in trouble
Ignorance is bliss but don’t we warrant the truth
Stop depending on uncle sam to protect our youth
I’m aggravated to know they had me just like the rest
I Accepted a grade without taking a test
It’s getting out of hand with this misguided priority
They want us to become accustomed to conformity
I’m not a critic, just want to voice my frustration
I’ve been comfortably numb to all this information
My ignorance finally became a complication
With my quest to find a higher education
-Mgrdich Ararat Sirabionian II
-Central Michigan University
Please feel free to leave your thoughts on the comment button below
Grand Valley State University, Joseph Leiberman, no party affiliation, Ron Paul Third Party Movement, Shawn Driggers, The skeptic by Shawn Driggers, The Third Party, Whig Party
In National Level, Student Articles on October 23, 2009 at 2:21 pm
Acknowledge that there is no face in this picture
The Third Party is being hammered out, not by independents, but by skeptics. Skeptics can lead to political parties and without people that disagree with how something is being run; a party has no way to evolve. A party should come together to have somewhat of a common ideology, not different ideologies from the multiple independents that we are seeing emerge from states around the country.
I think that in order for the Third Party (to be renamed) to emerge, they should look for people with the same beliefs and thoughts. Independents like Chris Dagget or Joseph Leiberman share different ideologies on how government should be run. If people continue to reach out to multiple Independent officials, the new party will not advance.
Take a note from history, the Continental Congress. Though the representatives had different ideas on how the country should run, they wanted to separate themselves from Britain and make clear distinctions between themselves. However, they took the idea of common law from Britain and it is still the same system we use to this day. The idea of bicameral legislature was taken from Britain as well. This party that rose, known as the Whig Party (which saw its demise prior to the Civil War) had a common ideology running through their political blood, of which was separation from Britain. We did distinguish ourselves from Britain, gaining our independence of course, but we utilized what we already knew and drew boundaries with it.
What I fear may be stopping the Third Party movement is too many people reaching out to too many independents around the country. Read More Read the rest of this entry »
Christina Stoetzel, End The Two Party System, green party, Independent Party, Olbermann, Rush Limbaugh, The Third Party Movement, Third Party
In 2010 State Elections, Activism, Independent Candidates, Local Issues, National Level, Student Articles on October 22, 2009 at 7:25 pm
The polarization between Democrats and Republicans forces Americans to examine issues on a black and white scale, and impedes any progress this nation can achieve. There is no middle ground between the two parties anymore, and the derision is beginning to leave Washington and bleed into the hearts and minds of the citizens. To hear the anger between the two sides and the lies being fed to the minds of the people by pundits like Limbaugh, Beck, and Olbermann is hurting this country and completely halting any social or economic progress.
What this country needs more than ever is for a group of people to rise and say enough is enough. We won’t listen to this anymore and we want a change; real change, not just a campaign slogan. Change that has to come from within our country; people have to stop taking what is given to them at face value; to stop choosing Democrat or Republican and to start thinking for themselves. A two-party system cannot begin to represent the ideas and thoughts of such a diverse and growing nation, and its time to let Washington know that we demand options and we demand choice.
-Christina Stoetzel
Galleon Group, Greed in Politics, hedge fund, IMB Corp., insider trading, Intel Corp, Raj Rajaratnam, Wall Street
In National Level, Student Articles on October 21, 2009 at 12:43 am
Hedge Fund Founder Charged with Insider Trading
Galleon Group founder Raj Rajaratnam has been charged with the largest hedge fund insider trading scam ever. Six others have been charged in the scam, including executives at Intel Corp. and IBM Corp. They are believed to have made $20 million off insider trading since 2006.
Rajaratnam was arrested Friday and released on bail for $100 million, the largest bail ever set in the US. He must stay within a 110 mile radius of New York City.
Rajaratnam assures he has done nothing illegal and that Galleon Group will continue to trade and conduct business. However the company has been faced with substantial investor withdrawal requests. The company is worth $3.7 billion in assets. Investors have requested to withdraw $1.3 billion. That’s a whopping 35% of Galleon’s total assets. Galleon has until January 1 to refund those funds.
There does not seem to be a large threat that Galleon will have its funds frozen. However, Galleon’s reputation has certainly been hit hard. Is the $1.3 billion withdrawal only the start of what is to happen or will Galleon be able to save its reputation? Only time will tell. But regardless if Rajaratnam is able to defend himself from all charges, Galleon Group will most likely take a large loss.
-Jason Bowyer
University of Michigan
American Patriot, American Revolution, Grand Valley State University, Greed in Politics, Patriotism, Shawn Driggers, Third Party Movement
In Student Articles on October 20, 2009 at 4:35 pm
So I am sitting in my history class as we were discussing the American Revolution and all of a sudden I became infuriated. Not furious with the Revolution, but incensed with our country that we live in today. One of the greatest parts of the Revolution was the rise of the American Patriot. I became so mad, because a true Patriot no longer exists at this time, but the idea of a Patriot is not that far from returning.
Patriots have faith in what they believe in and they constantly strive to change the world that surrounds them in a way to better not just themselves, but everyone else. This just doesn’t exist anymore because greed, hatred, and the lack of ability to accept, clouds the minds of citizens making them the enemy which we had some 233 years ago. Patriot shouldn’t even be a valid word at this time. Patriotism is at a low (though I am sure everyone will disagree), because we as a “Union” have forgotten what it is like to think like one and achieve goals as one. Everyone strives to be better than the next and I hate to say it folks, there is no “I” in team. Words like patriarch and patriotism don’t exist because the common ideology of a Patriot unfortunately is absent from American culture.
I do not know if I believe in a Third Party Movement, which is to be personally discussed at a later time, but if one is to exist and actually move forward; revitalize the Patriot and move forward as one to change the world, not a bunch of I’s trying to accomplish everything. Cohesive units are key, let the Third Party be a unit of Patriotism not of greed, power, and constant insubordination.
-Shawn Driggers
Grand Valley State University
College Tuition, Price of Education, Rising cost of college degree, Student Loans
In Student Articles, University Issues on October 18, 2009 at 11:57 pm
Students entering college this year are paying more than 500 dollars more than last year. Textbooks continue to rise in price, class sizes are getting bigger, and budget cuts around the world continue to rise. We have seen a dramatic increase in the price of tuition. Today the average college tuition with a full load is $6,385 compared to $655 in 1977. Why is this? We see a dramatic decline in government funding of public universities. The rising prices are only part of the shock awaiting parents.
The College Board warns that it now takes the average public university student six years to complete a degree. Private school students are taking an average of five years. This means parents should budget at least $79,000 to get today’s freshmen attending in-state public universities through graduation. The good news, however, is that many students who live at home and attend community colleges can still get an education at reasonable costs. After financial aid awards, they are paying an average net tuition cost of only $320 to carry a full course load. Adding $2,191 for books, supplies, and transportation brings the out-of-pocket costs for a year at the lowest-cost college option to $2,511. But even that’ is an increase of seven percent from last year.
Witnessing this brings one to ask, what should we do? Do we eliminate our teachers? Do we continue to add larger class sizes and make it harder for students to get into a particular class needed for graduation? We will wait to witness the future of students in United States. But for now save your money kids, or have mommy and daddy bail you out of your potential finical crisis of debt. Getting a degree is indispensible to ones future, but paying an arm and leg for these opportunities is absurd.
-Ryan Dacey
Central Michigan University
Petition, Students Against Smoke-Less Campus
In Activism, Local Issues, Student Articles, University Issues on October 12, 2009 at 3:55 pm
The idea behind this petition is to wake-up the university and let them know who should be making the decisions. I could careless if you are for or against smoking, it is the principle of it. How can a select few decide what is right/wrong for us as individuals? You must remember who pays for the buildings and salaries at our university, us students with our enormous tution bills!
