Opinion

Column

Forgotten Fronts: Why the Tatmadaw’s usage of anti-personnel mines is an egregious human rights violation

By Alexander Degterev | December 3

It was Sept. 29, 2022, and 57-year-old Daw Khin had just recently returned to her village in eastern Karenni State after being forced to flee due to attacks by Myanmar’s military junta, the Tatmadaw. Cleaning her now disheveled house, one of those still standing in her neighborhood, she stepped on a landmine which was placed right outside of her outdoor toilet.

---

Viewpoint

Should Thanksgiving be a day of mourning?

By Sorsha Khitikian | November 26

Since 1970, Indigenous people and their allies have gathered in Plymouth, Mass. on the fourth Thursday of November. This day, also the federal holiday of Thanksgiving, is known there by another name: National Day of Mourning. Those in Plymouth hear speeches, hold a protest and mourn for the millions of Indigenous people who died due to the genocidal tactics of European settlers.

---

Editorial

Editorial: Boycott Israel’s scholasticide

By The Editorial Board | November 26

Israel has obliterated every single university in Gaza. Palestinian academics have been targeted, killed and kidnapped by Israeli forces in an attempt to wipe out Palestinian society that human rights groups have said constitutes “scholasticide.” These crimes have prevented 625,000 Gazan students from attending school. United Nations schools have provided shelter for many Palestinians displaced by Israel’s assault, but these schools have been repeatedly bombed and attacked by Israeli forces. The Israeli army has also become notorious for systematically targeting Palestinian school children, and 44 out of 53 American doctors who treated children in Gaza during the past year saw Palestinian children with sniper wounds to their head or chest.

---

Viewpoint

A lesson on taking your time

By Grant Moore | November 26

There are countless things in life that just take time. When I first arrived at college in the bustling area of Medford/Somerville, I was impressed with the university’s private campus embedded in a public suburb. The T lines, buses, cars (that arguably drive too fast), bikes and everyday people zig-zagged between the paths of college students alike. Once my parents departed with hugs and some wise words, it was off to orientation and the next chapter of my life.

---

Column

Coffee Table Socioeconomics: Let’s give corporate social responsibility more credit

By Linda Huang | November 26

I spent the entire past summer volunteering as a funder research assistant for a U.N. agency, where I researched over 300 Chinese corporations on their Corporate Social Responsibility indexes. From analyzing the key sectors of each company, I sought to identify those with the dual strengths of mission-driven goals and substantial social funding to support targeted initiatives.

---

Guest

Letter to the Editor

By Paul Schlichtman | November 26

I am one of those people who believe trains are good, and more trains are better. However, as much as my heart cheers the Daily’s recent article (The Green Line should be extended — again), a Green Line extension to West Medford would be a challenging and expensive project that is unlikely to occur before current Tufts students visit their grandchildren on campus.

---

---

Viewpoint

Project 2025 – A threat to democracy?

By Aaron Bolonick | November 25

On Oct. 24, the Tufts Federalist Society hosted an event entitled “Is Project 2025 a Threat to Democracy?: A Dialogue.” It was a debate between Samuel Gebru, a Tufts political science professor of the practice, and Jonathan Wolfson, chief legal officer and policy director of the Cicero Institute, a Texas-based think tank. Wolfson, who had served as policy director in the Department of Labor during the first Trump administration, argued that Project 2025 is not a threat, while Gebru argued otherwise.

---

Viewpoint

2028 will be the most important election of our lifetimes

By Daniel Chung | November 25

In the wake of the recent 2024 U.S. election results, many articles — including two published by the Daily — have circulated the internet as a preliminary electoral autopsy, examining the causes of Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss which ushered President-elect Donald Trump back into the White House. I do not intend to write such an article. Instead, I aim to look ahead to the 2028 elections. Those, I posit, will really be the most important elections of our lifetime, despite rhetoric going back years that every preceding election has fulfilled that role.

---

Column

Forgotten Fronts: Making a case for DAANES governance

By Alexander Degterev | November 25

My previous article was a call to President-elect Donald Trump to reconsider his stance on withdrawing troops from Syria. However, I do not feel as if I properly made a case for the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, which I so adamantly advocated for.

---

Column

Ukraine at War: Russia targets Ukrainian children and families

By Mariia Kudina | November 22

I used to count the days since the start of the full-scale invasion. It seemed that such a brutal and bloody war could not last long and that the international community would soon find a solution to make Russian forces withdraw. I stopped the daily count sometime after the images from recently liberated towns around Kyiv and the news about the bombing of Mariupol Drama Theater were released in 2022. Though the world saw the atrocities of the Bucha massacre and the attack on the theater used as a shelter by civilians, including children, the war has only become more violent since then. This week marks 1000 days since the full-scale invasion, and after approximately 3900 days of the war, Russian attacks continue to intensify, increasingly targeting entire families.

---

Guest

Letter to the Editor

By Tufts University Department of Political Science | November 22

In response to recent news attention to the Tufts University Department of Political Science and in order to clear up any confusion, the faculty in this department unanimously issues the following statement: We have never had any ideological litmus tests for helping students get internship opportunities. ...

---

Viewpoint

Speech is free on college campuses — unless the administration doesn't like it

By Liam Chalfonte | November 21

I vividly remember last semester’s protests. I remember the encampment first appearing on the Academic Quad in early April just as I remember the messy aftermath of the Tufts Community Union Senate resolution votes. But most of all, I remember the chill in the air that came after Tufts’ administration first threatened to send in police to arrest the protestors — that icy April night on the eve of finals, being filled in my bones with the fear that many of my classmates would be leaving our campus in the back of cop cars.

---

Viewpoint

The intersection of AI and the downfall of long-form literature

By Max Lerner | November 21

Although it seems to be the argumentative equivalent of spilling a glass of water into the Pacific with the goal of flooding Sydney, I’m voicing my concern for the humanities in the ever-expanding face of artificial intelligence. The arguments against AI’s encroachment in academic settings, though prolific, have done nothing to mitigate it. A similar source of adversity facing English departments in particular, is the growing inability of college students to read long-form literature. Note my usage of the word in ability; students are not expressing boredom or a lack of time in response to being assigned novels, but rather a complete inability to read them.

---

Column

The Death of Education: Morning prayer for Trump in public schools?

By Evan Wang | November 20

Recently, Ryan Walters, the state superintendent of public instruction of Oklahoma, announced that he had purchased over 500 copies of the Bible to be taught in high schools and sent videos of himself praying for President-elect Donald Trump to be shown to public school students. This is in addition to a previous program that sought to purchase some 55,000 Bibles to be distributed to every public school classroom in the state of Oklahoma. Not only is this a travesty and mockery of the American education system and the separation between church and state, which is enshrined in our Constitution, but it is also a slap in the face to Christianity, which should not be taught by teachers who are wildly unprepared for the job.

---

Viewpoint

There is no one reason Harris lost

By Keshav Srikant | November 19

On Nov. 5, 2024, Democrats were handed their worst defeat in a presidential election since 2004. Donald Trump decisively defeated Kamala Harris, winning the popular vote by around two points and sweeping every swing state. The “tipping point” state in the election was Pennsylvania, which Harris lost by two points, roughly the percentage by which she lost the national vote. This was not a close election and Harris’ loss cannot be attributed to Electoral College bias or depressed voter turnout. On Election Day, American voters sent a loud and clear signal they wanted Donald Trump back in the White House.

---

Editorial

Editorial: Standing up for trans rights in response to Rep. Seth Moulton

By The Editorial Board | November 19

Since Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election, the Democratic Party has searched for answers to explain Vice President Kamala Harris’ defeat, pointing to the Democrats’ weak economic agenda, Harris’ failure to address voters’ concerns in the Middle East and Biden’s initial reluctance to leave the race. On Nov. 7, The New York Times published an article analyzing the Democrats’ defeat, in which Rep. Seth Moulton, a Democrat who represents Massachusetts’ 6th congressional district, criticized the party’s stance on transgender rights.

---

Guest

Op-ed: Why did Trump really win? Zooming in on the fundamentals

By Alex Landy | November 19

Despite legal troubles and persistent personal scandals, former President Donald Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris at the ballot box —and it wasn’t as close as the polls had projected. Ultimately, Trump won the national popular vote — the first Republican to do so since 2004 — and secured a commanding Electoral College victory. The avalanche of op-eds and post-mortems explaining Trump’s victory will no doubt continue to circulate in the months ahead. These well-informed perspectives should not obscure the fundamentals of the 2024 election. While we cannot put ourselves in the mind of every Trump voter to explain his victory, here is what we do know: Voters’ perceptions of the state of the economy and the direction of the country tilted this race in Trump’s favor from the onset.

---

Guest

Op-ed: Institutional ‘neutrality’ is institutional cowardice

By Antero Mejr | November 18

The Office of the Provost and Senior Vice President announced in an email to students on Friday afternoon that Tufts is exploring the option of a university-wide “Statement of Neutrality,” in which the university will attempt to distance itself from “taking positions on geopolitical or social matters.” Such an action would reflect poorly on the university, its administration, its alumni and the students. It demonstrates the worst tendencies of current-day institutions and should be opposed and scrapped for the following reasons. 

---

Column

Forgotten Fronts: The United States is about to abandon another ally

By Alexander Degterev | November 18

Following the recent election, the upcoming Trump administration has been discussing their plans to address various key issues in current American policy. Perhaps the least attention has been given to recent comments relating to American action in Syria, more specifically action as it relates to the various groups which make up the Syrian Democratic Forces. 

---

Viewpoint

It’s time to cut the cord with your helicopter parents

By Bela Silverman | November 15

There’s a point in many people’s lives that we deem our parental “cut off” date — an official end to our reliance on our parents and their support. Some say it’s when we blow out the candles on our 18th-birthday cakes, others claim it’s when we walk across the stage at college graduation and some even declare independence when our parent’s medical insurance kicks us off the policy at age 26. For my family, there wasn’t a precise date on our calendars when my bags had to be packed and out on the front porch. Rather, my parents’ progressive withdrawal of themselves as my constant safety net through adolescence left me ready for college without the baggage of parental dependency.

---