Letters to the editor
Issue date: 11/12/08 Section: Opinion
One step forward, two steps back
Last Tuesday, the United States took a bold step forward, voting overwhelmingly for the first black president.
At the same time, however, America took two giant steps backward. Discriminatory ballot initiatives across the country were approved, showing just how far we haven't come.
Discrimination was written into the constitutions of California, Arizona and Florida - states that chose to deny the right of marriage to an entire group of citizens because of their sexual orientation. The story of Proposition 8 in California is the most disheartening, coming only months after the state Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution of California mandated equal rights and equal protection of those rights to all Californians, regardless of sexuality.
Evangelical groups, Catholics and (most ironically) Mormons worked to make sure that if equality was in the Constitution, the Constitution be changed. And it was.
Discrimination wasn't right when it was against blacks, it wasn't right when it was against women and it still isn't right when it is against homosexuals.
In Arkansas, voters passed Act 1, banning cohabitating couples from adopting children. Don't be fooled - this act was about homophobia, not children. Written so as to describe its more poisonous intent, Act 1 will only add to the already 3,000 children that age out of the foster system every year, turning 18 without ever finding a family.
Instead of allowing social workers to use their professional judgment in picking good homes for children in need of families, the policy creates a blanket clause that removes options in a system that already has too few. This obvious fact says one thing: this isn't about children; it never has been. It's about hate.
Yes, we took a giant step forward last Tuesday - but looking down the ballot, we took a few terrible steps backward.
Shayne Henry
Junior
Political science
Students cling to popular movements
So Obama won. Congratulations all you that clung to the cult of personality - the likes of which have not been seen since John F. Kennedy - with a lingering paternalistic altruism.
To preface, I was not against Obama, but I was skeptical that Americans would vote in a black man. But now he is president-elect, and 150 years ago, blacks were fighting for their basic freedoms. It is definitely a testament to how far we have come as a nation, and I am proud … almost.
Ignored in this election is a matter far more important than being able to tell your grandchildren that you voted for the nation's first black president. Proposed Initiative Act No. 1, voted in by a 57 percent majority, makes it effectively illegal for nonmarried couples or single people to adopt children.
In a state with three times as many orphaned children as available homes, this issue is quite obviously not about the important of a "proper," nuclear family for children who may never have a family at all. The homophobia surpassed undertone status.
This legislation also is simply more evidence of government intruding upon your liberties, controlling your private lives and enforcing the will of the (slim) majority.
Yet, nobody seems to care. That is the true sadness of it all.
After the hype surrounding Ron Paul earlier this year, one would think that young people everywhere would be furious that such a blatantly repressive act could be allowed on a ballot next to their new candidate, Obama.
But it seems the older generations were correct. It was all a sham, a phony movement in a phony culture propped up by phony students pretending to care. When the Paul ship sailed, they turned to the next popular movement. And they sit high. Their candidate won. What else is there?
Being a cynic is becoming easier every day.
Ryan Poe
Graduate student
History
Discuss something intelligent about Obama
There are plenty of intelligent things to discuss about the impending Obama presidency: the first black president, raised by a single mother and grandparents, Harvard-educated, and lots more.
With all these things and more to intelligently discuss, where did Larry Burge get chakras? There is already a section for horoscopes in the Traveler. Please keep numerology, tarot card readings, third eyes, auras, pictures of fairies dancing around Stonehenge, and other farcical notions where they belong: the tabloids.
Brad Ledden
Graduate student
Microelectronics-photonics
Last Tuesday, the United States took a bold step forward, voting overwhelmingly for the first black president.
At the same time, however, America took two giant steps backward. Discriminatory ballot initiatives across the country were approved, showing just how far we haven't come.
Discrimination was written into the constitutions of California, Arizona and Florida - states that chose to deny the right of marriage to an entire group of citizens because of their sexual orientation. The story of Proposition 8 in California is the most disheartening, coming only months after the state Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution of California mandated equal rights and equal protection of those rights to all Californians, regardless of sexuality.
Evangelical groups, Catholics and (most ironically) Mormons worked to make sure that if equality was in the Constitution, the Constitution be changed. And it was.
Discrimination wasn't right when it was against blacks, it wasn't right when it was against women and it still isn't right when it is against homosexuals.
In Arkansas, voters passed Act 1, banning cohabitating couples from adopting children. Don't be fooled - this act was about homophobia, not children. Written so as to describe its more poisonous intent, Act 1 will only add to the already 3,000 children that age out of the foster system every year, turning 18 without ever finding a family.
Instead of allowing social workers to use their professional judgment in picking good homes for children in need of families, the policy creates a blanket clause that removes options in a system that already has too few. This obvious fact says one thing: this isn't about children; it never has been. It's about hate.
Yes, we took a giant step forward last Tuesday - but looking down the ballot, we took a few terrible steps backward.
Shayne Henry
Junior
Political science
Students cling to popular movements
So Obama won. Congratulations all you that clung to the cult of personality - the likes of which have not been seen since John F. Kennedy - with a lingering paternalistic altruism.
To preface, I was not against Obama, but I was skeptical that Americans would vote in a black man. But now he is president-elect, and 150 years ago, blacks were fighting for their basic freedoms. It is definitely a testament to how far we have come as a nation, and I am proud … almost.
Ignored in this election is a matter far more important than being able to tell your grandchildren that you voted for the nation's first black president. Proposed Initiative Act No. 1, voted in by a 57 percent majority, makes it effectively illegal for nonmarried couples or single people to adopt children.
In a state with three times as many orphaned children as available homes, this issue is quite obviously not about the important of a "proper," nuclear family for children who may never have a family at all. The homophobia surpassed undertone status.
This legislation also is simply more evidence of government intruding upon your liberties, controlling your private lives and enforcing the will of the (slim) majority.
Yet, nobody seems to care. That is the true sadness of it all.
After the hype surrounding Ron Paul earlier this year, one would think that young people everywhere would be furious that such a blatantly repressive act could be allowed on a ballot next to their new candidate, Obama.
But it seems the older generations were correct. It was all a sham, a phony movement in a phony culture propped up by phony students pretending to care. When the Paul ship sailed, they turned to the next popular movement. And they sit high. Their candidate won. What else is there?
Being a cynic is becoming easier every day.
Ryan Poe
Graduate student
History
Discuss something intelligent about Obama
There are plenty of intelligent things to discuss about the impending Obama presidency: the first black president, raised by a single mother and grandparents, Harvard-educated, and lots more.
With all these things and more to intelligently discuss, where did Larry Burge get chakras? There is already a section for horoscopes in the Traveler. Please keep numerology, tarot card readings, third eyes, auras, pictures of fairies dancing around Stonehenge, and other farcical notions where they belong: the tabloids.
Brad Ledden
Graduate student
Microelectronics-photonics
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