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Posts published in “Opinions”

Who the real losers are

By Olivia Handoko on February 28, 2019 |

Opinions

Olivia Handoko ’21 | News Staff Writer

On Feb. 11, Donald Trump Jr. made a speech that sent chills down my back. He had trivialized a profession I still hold dear to my heart in mere minutes. Thousands of people at the Texas border wall rally applauded his comment that motivated young conservatives to stay firm in their beliefs and stay away from “...these loser teachers that are trying to sell you on socialism from birth.” Though socialism has become a more popular political standpoint for young people today, you can’t say that this is because of what’s being taught at schools. But you could say that it’s disturbing how many of his supporters agree with his belief that teachers are “losers.” These very individuals who were raised by, nurtured, protected and supported by teachers had the audacity to agree that these people meant nothing.

Love yourself this Valentine’s Day

By Kelly Coons on February 14, 2019 |

Opinions

Happy Valentine’s Day. This is a happy day, isn’t it? It’s a day about love, after all. However, this day, like most other holidays, has become commercialized and all about what society thinks love should be. Every relationship is different, but under the banner of Valentine’s Day, the measure of a good relationship is how much money you spend on extravagant gifts.

Finding joy in the everyday

By thesophian on February 14, 2019 |

Opinions

Chantelle Leswell ‘20J | Staff Writer

We’re getting to that point in the semester where the first round of big assignments are hitting, the melting snow is leaving slush piles and black ice is everywhere. And is it just me, or is the big hole in the middle of campus getting bigger? For some of us, resolve may already be slipping. That doesn’t mean we can’t push through, but wouldn’t it be sweet if the semester wasn’t just about surviving? Sonja Lyubomirsky, author of “The How of Happiness,” puts it bluntly: “It’s equally important to investigate wellness as it is to study misery.” That’s worth pausing over. Holding both of these parts of the human condition with equal importance forces us to confront our self-concepts and how we act in our daily lives. My theory is that, generally, we wallow a little too much in the “misery” camp when we ought to be erring on the side of wellness, and leaning into moments of joy can really start to optimize our wellbeing.

Why you should start making habits early

By thesophian on February 7, 2019 |

Opinions

Welcome back from winter break! Now that it’s the spring semester — er, rather, the semester that will see the end of winter — what are you going to do? There are surely some holiday sugary treats left over, burning a hole in your pocket (or a shelf in your room), but before you indulge, consider… not?

Smith food: An unfair scapegoat

By thesophian on February 7, 2019 |

Opinions

An ugly fact of community: it bonds over shared targets. This fact guides the course of history as much as it thrums through the preteen sleepover, and afterward, many of us look back on our scapegoating with horror. We should not have started a war with that country; we should not have called Violet “Violet Vagina” and dared her to call her Evan and tell him that she wanted to have 10 of his babies simply because we knew that, desperate to fit in, she would.

What failure teaches us

By thesophian on January 31, 2019 |

Opinions

I’ve been reflecting a lot over break, mostly through journaling snippets of thoughts, ideas and feelings, but also through poring over the past five years of my life with loved ones. These years have been unquestionably formative and, predictably, incredibly difficult in ways I could never have anticipated. What I was able to decipher, while in a place I struggle to call home anymore, was that failure and the state of being unable to anticipate what’s coming from much of what has shaped me over these past few years.

To Russia, with love

By thesophian on January 31, 2019 |

Opinions

I didn’t plan on going to St. Petersburg during J-Term; I just happened to see a poster for it in Hatfield and realized it was a chance of a lifetime. I read “Petersburg” by Andrei Bely awhile ago, and it made me want to see St. Petersburg in person. I thought about making the trip myself, but I didn’t know how to plan it, and the visa is expensive.

Letter to the editor

By thesophian on January 31, 2019 |

Letters to the Editor and Opinions

We are living in a time when our civic duty is becoming more important. As American citizens, we each have the right to participate in our democracy. However, there are 5.78 million eligible voters who have Limited English Proficiency (LEP), showing that there is a need for increased access to voting materials in languages other than English. Under Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act, districts with 10,000 people (or 5% of the voting age population) who speak a single minority language are required to provide voting information in that language. This often leaves many people who live in less dense populations without accommodations. People who speak English as a second language live all over the U.S. and should have the means to read important information in their native language if they need, or choose, to. According to The Nation, more than 270,000 LEP voters live in 20 of the country’s most hotly contested congressional districts and have no voting accommodations. Expanding access to voting materials to non-native English speakers could swing 20 competitive congressional elections. The diversity of the American population should be reflected in our voting practices and policies if our nation wants to claim to be a true democracy.