Opinion - The Daily Cardinal

OPINION

Panhandling should not be confused for homelessness

By Sara Vinson | Oct. 13, 2013

Just over a year ago restrictions on panhandling increased in Madison. As of October 2012, panhandling within 25 feet of an alcohol licensed establishment, an outdoor eating area, an intersection, the central business district, or an ATM is illegal. This makes it basically impossible to shake a cup of coins anywhere on State Street anymore and I could not be happier about it. Before I inspire any serious controversy, there is a difference between homeless people and panhandlers. The number of homeless individuals is rising in Madison. According to Porchlight Inc., the largest company supplying housing to low-income residents to Dane County, there are over 3,500 homeless people in Dane County every year. Their statistics show more than 1,200 single men, 500 single women, over 1,000 children and 500 families were homeless in 2010. Porchlight also claims over 2,000 people were turned away from over-crowded shelters in Madison in 2011. I encourage any help for the homeless. There are over half a dozen places in Madison that are specifically designed to help the homeless. Places like Porchlight Inc, and Youth Services of Southern Wisconsin offer resources to the homeless. Anyone can donate to these causes at any time. There are locations in Madison for homeless people to stay like Bethel Lutheran Church and the Road Home. These places could always use the help of college students like us with the time to volunteer. It is important to respect the homeless and treat homeless people like people.

OPINION

We should legalize medical marijuana

By Charles Adams | Oct. 13, 2013

This past Thursday, the debate over medical marijuana in Wisconsin was revived when state Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D- Middleton, and state Rep. Chris Taylor D- Madison, introduced the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuna Act. This act would legalize the usage of marijuana for patients with various debilitating conditions such as cancer and muscle seizures. Prior to Thursday, I knew very little about the usage of marijuana as a medicine. But after attending the press conference where the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuna Act was introduced, I decided to do some research on the positives and negatives of medical marijuana. I was astounded by what I found. Numerous doctors and experts all said the same thing: Marijuana has a healing effect unlike any other current medicine.

OPINION

Letter: "She's the First" empowers women in the developing world through giving the gift of education

By Brittany Jones and Jenna Bushnell | Oct. 10, 2013

You’re probably well aware that Friday marks the beginning of Homecoming weekend—yet another opportunity to celebrate our world-renown University and all it has to offer. But what you may not know about Friday is that it is also the United Nation’s International Day of The Girl. While it may not seem like these two events have much in common, they do. They both laud the value of education, but do so in different ways.

OPINION

Iran's new leadership makes US cautiously optimistic

By Ryan Bullen | Oct. 10, 2013

Talk is just that: talk.

OPINION

Tea Party's platform hurts our system

By Alex Holland | Oct. 10, 2013

Over the last several days, opinionated editorial sections across the country have been filled with advocates for compromise and bipartisanship over the mess Washington finds itself in. Major national newspapers have focused on the failures of Congress and the infighting between and within political parties. This lineage of argumentation misses the entire reason we are where we are.

OPINION

Maybe nothing is better left unsaid

By Haleigh Amant | Oct. 8, 2013

I wish every student on campus could have seen this; gay, straight, black, white, Hispanic, Asian. Everyone. I am not in a minority group, unless we can still consider women as a minority, which maybe we can in some instances (though, thank God, I think that generation is dying off). Never have I felt so lucky and full of opportunity during my years at a university. Jonathan Rauch, a well known journalist, activist and writer of “Kindly Inquisitors” came to lecture in my First Amendment class Tuesday. Never have I felt so enlightened, free from ignorance and more eager to share this with every single person on this campus, hell every person in the United States, if my opinion could reach that far, maybe even the world. This topic is not an easy one, in fact it is one with very blurry lines. It is the topic of free speech with regard to minorities and hate speech. Jonathan Rauch asked us what lines should be drawn? Should we have laws and speech codes that prohibit hateful speech? Rauch, an open homosexual, says no. Before you get extremely alarmed and confused by his answer, you should hear his argument, which is incredibly strong and in my view, unwavering. At the beginning of his lecture I answered, “Of course we should,” as I believe that everyone, no matter who they are, deserves to feel comfortable in their own skin at all times. And if law needs to be the means in which we make sure that’s the case, then so be it. But throughout his lecture, in which I cried, had goose bumps almost the entire time and actually felt my mind being changed for the better, my answer changed.

OPINION

Diversity training fosters healthy learning environments

By The Daily Cardinal Editorial Board | Oct. 8, 2013

Every day, thousands of students at our university attempt to collaborate, learn and work together. With myriad, complex identities being carried by each and every one of them, that is no easy task. It is the role of the university and its faculty members to make it easier and at least safe for the students involved. In order to work toward this goal, the university requires all of its T.A.’s to attend a series of diversity training sessions intended to prepare them for possible classroom situations. On September 22, T.A. and History graduate student Jason Morgan disagreed with the requirement and decided to tell his department supervisor along with a handful of conservative media outlets. In his letter, he describes the university’s training sessions as “an avalanche of insinuations, outright accusations, and suffocating political indoctrination,” and virulently protests their attempts at tackling white privilege and supporting trans students.

OPINION

Pro-efficiency budget means progress

By Joe Patton and Chris Hoffman | Oct. 8, 2013

This past Tuesday, County Executive Joe Parisi came out with his 2014 Dane County budget. While students may not be privy to all the details of county government and its budget, I believe students would support this budget.

OPINION

Documentary filmmakers open conversation about anti-Muslim rhetoric in American media

By Alex Swanson | Oct. 8, 2013

In response to the horrific Kenyan mall massacre, Fox News’ Bob Beckel recently declared, “No Muslim students coming here with visas. No more mosques being built here until you stand up and denounce what’s happened in the name of your prophet.” Needless to say, the controversial comment started an uproar in the media. One of the people currently pushing back against this comment is Muslim comedian Dean Obeidallah.

OPINION

Embarrassment of shutdown continues

By Leah Leonidas and Charles Adams | Oct. 8, 2013

Last Monday marked another sad day for American politics. It was the end of the fiscal year, and the federal government’s budget was set to expire. The United States Congress faced a choice: pass a budget and have the government continue running or not act at all and have the government shut down. As a double major in political science and economics, this was right up my alley. The world of politics and debates was colliding with the world of economics and fiscal policies. I was extremely intrigued to see what members of Congress would decide was best for America.

OPINION

Letter: Moral judgments must be made in business practices

By Jill Gabrielle Klein | Oct. 6, 2013

I teach moral judgment at Melbourne Business School in Australia. The audiences I address range from MBA students to C-suite executives. Every time I present, no matter who is in the audience, there is one moment when I have the complete attention of everyone in the room. It is when I tell the story of what happened to my father when he was a 16-year-old concentration camp prisoner under the Third Reich in the late summer of 1944.

CAMPUS NEWS

Letter: Awareness of domestic abuse is crucial

By Kari Hajduk | Oct. 6, 2013

While October is a busy month for most students on campus with midterms approaching and football games in full swing, it is an even busier month for Promoting Awareness, Victim Empowerment.

OPINION

Do not be a fool and wrap your tool

By Sara Vinson | Oct. 3, 2013

This is a very sex positive campus. Trojan even rated us fifth in the country on their Sexual Health Report card in 2012, climbing all the way from 32nd in 2010. We have awesome resources like Sex Out Loud and the Campus Women’s Center. However, I still see a problem in our sexual health future: We are way too reluctant to use condoms. I have so many friends who claim to just not like them and that is why they do not use them. The birth control pill, they say, is enough. This excuse is infuriating to me. Latex allergies aside, there is just no comparison between the slight differences in sensation when using a condom and the risks one takes going without one.

OPINION

If this does not work, we will wait for a next revolution

By Sean Hoey | Oct. 3, 2013

As I’m sure you can tell from the name-calling and the hair-pulling that has ensued in the Capitol-turned-playground, Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, Sen. Ted Cruz R-Texas and the rest of the schoolyard gang chose to shut down the federal government Monday night. As a result, 800,000 federal employees were sent home.

CAMPUS NEWS

Letter: Our debt in the United States is a bipartisan issue to talk about

By Jennifer Pavelec | Oct. 3, 2013

For college students today, the word “debt” is an omnipresent warning about the problems facing our future. From record student loan debt, about $27,000 on average per person, to the immense and growing national debt, college students are bombarded by figures that demonstrate the threat to our American dreams. Unemployment for young people remains in the double digits, about 11 percent, due to the lasting impact of the Great Recession. Our national debt has reached $200 trillion, and counting. Yet, despite these staggering facts, many college students remain unmoved, either feeling powerless to enact real change or disengaged from politics in general. But perhaps the scariest part about the national debt is that it threatens our futures to an even greater extent than it does those best positioned to fix it. And so, it is up to our generation to defeat the debt, before it defeats us.

OPINION

Letter: Anti-cruelty efforts on campus must be more widespread, awareness of issue must be raised

By Josh Kissel | Oct. 3, 2013

The oversight process for animal experiments is broken.

OPINION

This column's author would prefer to remain anonymous

Oct. 3, 2013

There’s too much hack-job journalism circulating the Internet.

OPINION

Government shutdown is an embarrassment

By Whitney Newman and The Daily Cardinal Editorial Board | Oct. 3, 2013

Well, it happened again. The spoiled rich kids threw a fit because they couldn’t get their way, and now everyone around them is scrambling to pick up their mess. Except this isn’t a movie, it’s the real world, and it isn’t high school, it’s Congress. To quote Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., “You don’t get to hold the entire economy, the entire country hostage because you don’t like the outcome of an election.” Yet, seemingly, that is exactly what was done. This absurdly childish behavior has many implications for us, both as students at a public research university and as citizens of the country as well as the world.

OPINION

In order to manifest world peace, Japan must shift attitude when remembering historic events

By Leah Cowen and Christopher Guess and Andrew Park | Oct. 2, 2013

On June 8th, 1954, a beautiful Japanese traditional bell was presented to the United Nations New York headquarters by the United Nations Associations of Japan in the name of People of Nippon. They named the bell for “absolute world peace.” However, there would be no use of tolling such a beautiful bell every year if Japan distances itself from the others. It has been approximately 68 years since the end of WWII and Japan is trying to go back to its “old glorious days” while Germany is walking the path of endless apologies and self-retrospection.

OPINION

Just give me some beer

By Jonah Sutherland | Oct. 2, 2013

It’s time the legal drinking age should be changed. I mean, come on, weed is almost legal! Yet, we still have to be 21 years of age to purchase and consume alcohol? Being of the tender age of 19 and having a late spring birthday I have quite a bit of time to wait before I can legally purchase and consume alcohol. I will admit I had a fake but now that I recently have gotten it confiscated and do not want to go through the trouble of purchasing a new one, it’s time I write this article.