Opinions

Opinions

Being A Compassionate Community

     On a cold and rainy evening midway through last semester, I texted a close friend: “I need a hug and maybe a cup of tea.” It had been a particularly rough day for me, compounding the pain of a rough week. The particulars of my pain that night […]

Opinions

Choosing to Live in a New Year

     Everyone has heard the familiar adage “life speeds by,” yet I never considered that reality would be so harsh. Time flies, and life goes on: the reality of that truth can be quite upsetting. You make excuses to do what really matters to you today: “no time,” you […]

Opinions

Thank You, President Obama

     As your second term as our president draws to a close, I want to thank you, President Obama, for these eight years that you have served our nation. We did not agree on everything, and some of our disagreements, regarding abortion, for example, are profound. Yet my respect […]

Opinions

Community After the 2016 Election

     In the wake of the recent presidential election, I walked around the hills of Eastern and saw many students who looked sad and shocked. I also saw people who were gleaming in happiness and optimism that their country would undoubtedly become great again. These two reactions were on […]

Opinions

Faith Focus: C.S. Lewis on Friendship

     Not too long ago I read C.S. Lewis’s “The Four Loves.” I underlined passages and bracketed entire paragraphs and sticky-noted pages that moved me, paragraphs, passages and pages that were more than just words—they were new ideas and perspectives coming to life and dancing a complex waltz through […]

Opinions

Standing With Standing Rock

     What is the problem with the Dakota Access Pipeline? Why is everyone protesting this? Why is Shailene Woodley getting arrested: Is this a part of her secret life as an American teenager? Here is what you need to know. First, this is an oil pipeline that stretches from […]

Opinions

Faith Focus: On Being Grateful

     You may or may not be familiar with this situation, but I know it all too well. It is Thanksgiving. All of the food has been passed around the table, and everyone has had their fill. Just before dessert is served, one of the old people at the […]

Opinions

How Modern Sci-Fi Sees Humans

     In 1964, a researcher at MIT named Joseph Weizenbaum created the program ELIZA which functioned as an early version of Artificial Intelligence (AI). ELIZA operated on a script which was designed to mirror the speech patterns of a psychoanalyst (responding to almost everything with a question) such that […]