Opinion

---

Stop sharing sensational 'news' online

Recently, a story about the Salvation Army circulated on Facebook that said the nonprofit hates the LGBTQ community. It even mentioned that the Salvation Army wants gay people to die. A member of the charity spoke on its behalf, and pictures of posters composed of hate speech coordinated with the article. I read it, I have heard about the Salvation Army’s stance about LGBTQ community in the past, I was horrified and I chose to share it. It was the most shared thing I have ever posted—multiple friends gave in-depth comments and shared it themselves.

Student income-based achievement gap could be bridged with reform

The U.S. federal government has been governing from crisis to crisis. A symptom of this outside of the large (and ever growing) negative impact on the economy is that Washington has not been able to work toward solving problems that plague this country. At the top of this list is the growing discrepancy in academic achievement between wealthy and poor students. One-point-two mill. children drop out of high school every year or one every 26 seconds. That student who drops out is eight times more likely to go to prison and is not eligible for 90 percent of the new jobs created. More than half of those dropouts come from less than 15 percent of the nation’s schools. A large number of these schools are in urban environments and are made up of largely minority populations. Standardized test score differences between wealthy and poor students rose by 40 percent from 1976 to 2001.

There should be a cap on campaign spending in elections

This past week my mother forwarded a link to an article published in The New York Times. She did not mention anything about the content of the article besides the fact that it was about the Koch Brothers funding political advertisements. I expected to read about the Koch brothers paying for advertisements in a gubernatorial election or a mayoral race in a large city. After all, these two brothers are notorious for lucratively funding conservative political action committees, and they were the second largest contributors to Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign for governor in 2010. To my surprise, this article had nothing to with the gubernatorial election in Virginia or the mayoral election in New York. Rather, this article was about city council elections in Coralville, Iowa. The article detailed how Americans for Prosperity, a political action committee largely funded by the Koch Brothers, had become involved in these races. In a town of approximately 20,000 people, the two Koch brothers, each valued at $36 billion, were trying to influence the election with their money. This was shocking to me. Typically, these elections are not highly contested and they normally go unpublicized. This changed with the Koch brothers. Outside help was being brought in to run candidate campaigns and candidates were being forced to change their platforms. One candidate had planned a campaign on smaller issues such as painting the water tower. However, after Americans for Prosperity came to town, everything changed. Central debates of the campaign were shifted toward issues that pertained to Koch Brothers’ business interests. To me, the Koch brothers’ goal was clear. As much as they tried to disguise their intentions, it was clear control was the end goal. They wished to control government and create policies favorable to their interests. Apparently, no election is too small to buy.

Letter: University has bee long-overdue for new diversity plan

Twenty-five years ago, our campus blazed the trail for diversity initiatives at universities across the country. We created the first institutional diversity plan, Plan 2008, which made major changes to the dynamics of our campus, encouraging the inclusion of students of a range of backgrounds and identities. Plan 2008 set many goals for our campus including increasing the number of Wisconsin students of color at UW System schools, increasing the amount of financial aid available to needy students and fostering environments and courses that would enhance learning and respect for racial and ethnic diversity.

Feminism stands for gender equality

Feminism takes a lot of heat. It is a stigmatized word. Celebrities like Taylor Swift and Katy Perry refused to call themselves feminists. Even Beyoncé does not consider herself a feminist. I think the word feminist, like the term rape culture, has connotations that are warped from any recognizable definition. I am here to set the record straight. Feminism is nothing more and nothing less than the desire for equal rights and opportunities for men and women. It is about humanity, not hatred. Anyone calling their hatred for men “feminism” should probably just take a vow of silence. If you hate men, that is a personal problem, not a political stance. So stop using the word that way, and stop hating feminists because of it.

November lease-signing crazy does not benefit students

Cartels are winning the war on drugs

Hookstead's 'rape culture' letter shows some still hold gross world views

The Badger Herald’s recent letter-to-the-editor “'Rape culture' does not exist” further proves the University of Wisconsin- Madison’s preeminent ego-inflamed, aggressively misogynistic, notorious “semi celebrity” David Hookstead unsurprisingly doesn’t harbor the capacity to understand the concept “rape culture.” There has already been an onslaught of backlash in response to his column—appalled voices furiously speaking against what is clearly a gross rhetorical misrepresentation of the truth on a core level. All anger toward this abomination is totally warranted. But my response here is not intended to insult or belittle Hookstead as a person (social media can take care of that). All I’m going to do is explain why his claim is wrong.

Despite glitches, "Obamacare" is the correct choice for healthcare

The roll out of the Affordable Care Act online exchanges have been plagued with glitches that have prevented millions of people from being able to sign up for healthcare coverage that the law mandates. This is an inexcusable mistake by the federal government, and someone must be held accountable for these egregious errors. That being said, these technical issues are not cause to lose faith in the broader policy. Despite the minor setbacks that the technical problems have caused, the Affordable Care Act was the right thing to do and will help American society in the long run.

US House needs to pass the ENDA

Monday night, the Senate passed the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which makes it illegal for an employer to fire or not hire someone due to his or her sexual orientation and/or gender identity. The passage of ENDA marks a significant milestone for the LGBT equality movement. Nevertheless, the Heritage Foundation’s Ryan Anderson and many other conservatives feel differently. Anderson stated ENDA is “bad policy” because “ENDA would create special privileges based on sexual orientation and gender identity.” ENDA ensures that as many as two-thirds of LGBT individuals do not face employment discrimination in their respective workplaces and that the third of men earn less than their similarly qualified heterosexual male counterparts earn the same. Ensuring all people are rewarded for their hard work rather than exogenous factors is by no means a ‘special privilege.’ Anderson complains that ENDA would “impinge Americans’ right to run their businesses the way they choose,” but Anderson forgets that the 14th Amendment guarantees equal protection under the law. Surely, ensuring LGBT folks are treated the same as their heterosexual counterparts supercede the rights of businesses.

Rape culture in the U.S. does indeed exist

It looks like The Badger Herald has embraced the thoughts of the one Mr. David Hookstead again. And this one is a doozey!

A message from PAVE: This is what rape culture looks like

Thank you, for the stunning example of how rape culture is alive and well on the UW-Madison campus. There are several aspects of the recent Letter to the Editor that Promoting Awareness, Victim Empowerment (PAVE) feels warrant response.

Ethics are more important than notoriety

A fundamental principle of journalism is the productive incitement of discussion that does not arrive at the harmful expense of readers. In publishing the letter “‘Rape Culture’ Does Not Exist,” The Badger Herald has done one of these things correctly: opened a floodgate of dialogue for students to weigh in and victims to share experiences. However, the catalyst to this discussion has been an unproductive means of reaching a productive dialogue.

Students need more civic engagement

The Daily Cardinal editorial board released an opinion piece Tuesday, Oct. 29 encouraging University of Wisconsin- Madison students to fulfill their democratic obligation and take part in the local elections approaching this coming April.

NSA must stop spying

The United States National Security Agency, or the NSA as it as popularly referred to, is in some hot water. On Monday, allegations came from Europe that NSA has spied and collected information from foreign leaders for almost a decade. Allegedly, The NSA collected information from 35 world leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, one of the United States’ closest allies. This espionage has left many around the world feeling uneasy and suspicious of the United States, and President Barack Obama claims not to have known about this espionage. This is not the first round of trouble for the NSA, either. Last May, former CIA employee and NSA contractor Edward Snowden released confidential documents detailing the NSA’s surveillance practices. This included the ordering of American phone companies to send extensive call records and logs to the NSA. Rightfully so, this left a feeling of unrest among Americans. Many Americans were concerned over the scope of these surveillance practices and it asks the question: Just how much do the NSA and federal government know about our daily lives?

Discrimination in Russia should be fought

Eating right is a lifestyle

Plenty of people consider themselves to be health experts. They alone know what is truly healthy and unhealthy, and other people should be judged and corrected for their silly dietary mistakes. Here is the secret: everyone is wrong to some extent. Healthy eating is not about fad diets or fasting, and it is certainly not about finding the perfect combination of diet and exercise either, because that does not exist.

Breaching privacy has become too easy

It’s a dangerous world that we live in. What is the price you are willing to pay to feel safe? Apparently, the National Security Agency feels that price isn’t cheap.

Bilingual ability is a necessary, invaluable asset to possess

Whether or not you have the time or the brainpower, it’s time to hunker down with Rosetta Stone and start saving up for a trip to Spain or Argentina. Why is this? Because being bilingual is becoming a hot commodity in the job market. Behind the scenes of the sexiness that comes with speaking a foreign language, there seems to be a weird power struggle between languages. Here in the United Sates, I see two extremes. One of them rewards bilingualism and one simply and stubbornly considers English to be the superior language in the United States.

Politics should better represent women

Having recently applied to law school and talked to my dad about the “optional essay,” which usually asks a diversity related question: i.e. “How can you contribute to the diversity of this campus?,” I realized women still have a long way to go. Speaking with him on the phone, I asked him what angle I could take on my diversity and how it will add to Georgetown Law School’s campus. I’m a white girl from the Midwest, so I didn’t think I had much to offer. “Well you know, women have made progress, but you’re still not equal to men,” my dad so brilliantly remarked. And, ding-ding-ding, a light bulb went off. Female political science students here at the University of Wisconsin- Madison—this column is dedicated to you, but male political science students should listen as well.