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(03/14/13 1:32am)
Imagine walking past Eastern Michigan University’s Pray-Harrold building and glancing up to see solar panels harnessing the power of the sun. The reality is, we have a vast untapped solar resource but continue to depend on outdated energy sources like coal, gas and oil that pollute our air and water and drain our natural resources.
(05/09/11 10:52pm)
Sure you might’ve been to Sticks or Aubrey’s, hopefully Sidetrack — but have you really explored all Depot Town has to offer?
(04/03/11 6:33pm)
What better time to dust off the old two-wheeler than the thawing warmth of Michigan spring? With bikini season coming up and healthy living on everyone’s mind – let alone those gas prices! They will continue to rise and your body doesn’t exercise itself.
(03/20/11 8:26pm)
It’s impossible to ignore the flurry of opinions yet difficult to discern the facts of the current nuclear crisis. What is clear is the massive impact of the recent earthquakes and tsunami damage on Japan’s multiple nuclear reactors, which are still steaming radioactive material.
(03/13/11 7:11pm)
Among all the chaos of recent headlines, the one that may most critically and directly affect me personally seems to me, the most ridiculous. You might have heard of the Republican attack on Planned Parenthood and other provisions that kill essential health programs. Perhaps not so widely covered was the U.S. helicopter that gunned down nine young boys in Afghanistan or the increasingly despicable treatment of Bradley Manning. This is not to diminish the importance of understanding the challenges assaulting women in America.
(02/24/11 1:03am)
How will your life change when gas hits $5 a gallon? Research of potential gas prices predicts this could occur as early as two years from now, but the range extends to 2020 – a clear indication of the volatile and speculative nature of the market.
(02/13/11 9:57pm)
In the United States there is a strongly divisive argument over whether gay couples have the right to marry or not. It was ordained in the founding documents of this nation that all are equal, and all people have the same freedoms. It is important for all to be involved in this debate as its ripples have the potential to affect us all down the line. We all share rights we can lose if we do not act to preserve and protect the rights of others.
(02/06/11 11:43pm)
How far did your dinner travel? In the United States food travels, on average, between 1,500 and 2,000 miles from farm to table, according to WorldWatch Institute. This number is 25 percent higher than it was in 1980, conjuring up thoughts of fuel used for transport as well as questions of freshness and quality of produce that might have visited more states than you have in your entire life.
(01/30/11 9:29pm)
Our world runs at a hectic, and sometimes overwhelming, pace. We demand fast access to goods and services to satisfy our whims. All of these choices come with external costs. When we buy water, sometimes we spring for the bottle with “30 percent less plastic.” Examples like this “environmentally minded” product have been brought about by the green movement. But such token reductions amount to “greenwashing”.
(01/27/11 1:04am)
Monday, a panel comprised of an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer, a professor and other distinguished guests explained why Eastern Michigan University students should know their rights in a discussion entitled, “Know Your Rights: Student Liberties- Your Rights as a Student and a Citizen.”
(01/23/11 8:51pm)
Not more than two weeks ago, the international news community was positively buzzing with coverage of a vote for independence in Sudan. The nation has been plagued with devastating poverty, two civil wars and continuing violence since its independence from Egypt and Britain in 1956. Conflict is centered between the Arab-cultured North and the traditional African religion and social structure of the South.
The roots of the ethnic divide go back to the time of the slave trade. The First Sudanese Civil War, from 1955-1972 was fought against the southern rebel Anyanya group. The second raged on between a re-formed resistance under the banner of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement from 1983-2005.
In 2005, the Comprehensive Peace Agreement was signed between the SPLM and the government of Sudan. Compromise ended the war with a promise for countrywide democracy and equal share of oil revenues. It also set up a timetable that agreed to hold the votes last week and sets independence, if declared, for July 9, 2011.
The most definitive number on voter turnout from the BBC proposes 97.5 percent of voters showed support for separation. The Sudan Tribune reports voter turnout ranged from 85 percent in the state of Unity (Western Upper Nile) to an astounding 100 percent in Western Equatoria.
All evidence points toward the region becoming an autonomous nation in July. Freedom for a newly established African country where there is little infrastructure coupled with high rates of poverty, illiteracy and malnutrition could mean a great many challenges lie ahead.
The important thing to take away from this election is the exuberance with which registered and able citizens participated. In our last presidential election, US Elections Project reports 56.8 percent voter turnout. Does this apathy, this all-too determined lack of spoken voices point to a loss of understanding? A loss of interest? Or does it speak to the overwhelming sense of helplessness that pervades our society’s citizens?
We are our governor. Washington concentrates power of legislation on a national level and all the way down, but if the government is messing up, it is our responsibility. If the ship sinks because those in the shipyard were lazy or indifferent, it cannot be blamed on the captain they put in charge.
When awareness of the way things really work leads to an understanding of the monetary trail of connections between big business and government, between unhealthy industries such as coal and pharmaceuticals, genetically modified agriculture, factory farming and so on.
Add the increase in health problems, incarceration rates of minorities, and tax cuts for the rich. Sitting on the shoulders of each American, whether informed or ignorant, there seems to be an impending sense of “uh-oh.” What has gone wrong?
Sudanese women, many of whom, most especially in the south, are not practicing Muslims, were ruled by Islamic law as laid down by a traditionalist government. Denial of gender equality led to a lack of education, health care and job opportunities. Many of these women have been sexually assaulted and raped in exchange for food, or more often for nothing at all. Due to their gender, many young women are unable to attend school, afraid of the walk outside of their homes.
In the face of such inequality, the voters in last week’s elections were, according to IPS News, 52 percent women, many of whom see the referendum as a door to a more nourishing community of sustainable development.
These women are calling for equal representation in government and plan on voting in and supporting a balanced legislature in the newly named South Sudan. We had 78 percent turnout for the re-election of Lincoln in 1864, and the Civil War is the closest we’ve gotten to the horrors of Darfur. It is when times are bad that we care, but if 41 percent is how much we care under the 2010 stresses, we’ve lost touch with what our American Revolution actually stood for – the citizens being in control.
In the United States today, “the Constitution” has become a buzzword to rally patriots, while simultaneously being trampled upon by the Supreme Court. This happened a year ago when the branch designed solely to protect the people from government repression and overreach ruled that corporations have the same rights as the people.
Perhaps, rather than wilting under the systematically unfair proceedings of our country, we as a nation can look at the challenges of daily life for the millions of impoverished peoples across Sudan, Africa, and the entire world — and be grateful.
Take time to say thank you with ever-growing gratitude for the constant heat, water, electricity, abundant food and books, education and opportunity to organize and engage. They say it gets worse before it gets better, but tell me, my fellow Americans: How much worse can we allow our home to get?
We are a great nation because of what we stand for, and how we, The People, stand for it.
(01/09/11 9:40pm)
America, get out from under your comfort. Do not allow the automatic nature of the modern bubble of our nation to cripple your awareness. Everywhere around you, countless beings are struggling for life.
It is relatively easy in a so-called developed country to find the things necessary for survival. Food is overabundant, energy is cheap and the government is a well-established and systematic machine.
Individual problems do not take into account the destitute poverty and slum-conditioned lives that surround any given city and rural area in the world. Humans all share one sphere of environment, one atmosphere.
Each effect will move forward into an avalanche that will consume what we accept as real. The future is here, and you are driving to work, shopping for groceries, listening to advertisements and watching television.
Do not take what you have as solid — examine the foundations of what exists. Read the newspaper and then listen to talk radio, take all the sources and form your own truth. Do not swallow what they are giving you — instead cough it up and do your own work.
Stop lulling yourself to sleep in the form of buy, buy, spend, spend, take, take, hear, hear. Listen.
Listen to more than what you are told subconsciously by the handful of corporations that own all you come across. Take time to think of the local businesses, farmers and people.
Do unto others as you should expect they would do unto you. Begin to understand the most important part of any democracy, any life, is the individual constituent. You have a responsibility to hold your government accountable. Already many elected government officials get away with heinous crimes without an eye blink from the public.
You can control your life, your government and your tax dollars.
Examine what is taken to be true and speak for what makes sense. Believe in something! Remember history, and consider those who have found truth cannot be trusted – those who are searching know.
Do not take these written words for truth, but search for facts and form your own. Find out what your local government does with its money. Tell it what you think and learn from those around you.
Wake up to the reality of this nation – you can influence with your voice, but only with many unified voices can we truly influence legislative change.
Remember the movements of the past, when people were directly affected and so responded. Consider your position on the planet, in a solar system, galaxy, galaxies among galaxies – billions and so infinite our minds cannot comprehend or put it into words.
We are merely an infinitesimal speck of all the life in the world. Live in attempts to proliferate loving kindness. If nothing really matters why choose to see life as anything less than magnificent?
Stop swallowing the myths of today’s culture and understand humans are just another step in the Earth’s evolutionary path. We are just another animal, and with consciousness comes consequence.