I have thoroughly enjoyed my time in the Tufts Daily Opinion Section. I have learned a great deal about journalism, made great friends and written timely articles that have resonated with many members of the Tufts community. At the same time, I have enjoyed butting heads on various issues with my fellow section members.
I’m not a very chatty person, but it’s here at the Daily I’ve found my voice — 500 to 800 words at a time. It’s been just over a year since my first article as a staff writer and as a senior, I can’t help but be sappy.
By the end of this year, the U.S. will have lost one-third of the news publications it had in 2005. Major publications such as Time Magazine and the Los Angeles Times laid off scores of journalists last month, an event journalist Paul Farhi called “especially ominous.” Farhi himself was laid off by the Washington Post last year. Most of the defunct publications, however, are smaller weekly newspapers that are often the only source of reporting for local communities.
On many Sundays throughout the year, more than a million people tune in for the greatest spectacle on Earth: Formula 1. Crazed fans travel across continents and spend their life savings to see a nanosecond glimpse of their team’s car virtually flying on the track. Others scream in their hall’s common room when the camera suddenly pans to their favorite driver in the barriers (apologies to anyone impacted by my shrieking).
In an age marked by job market challenges and heightened student anxiety about internships and future career prospects, the familiar glow of LinkedIn pervades every corner of the university campus and the mind of every college student. The distracted kid in class, the kid bored from studying in Tisch Library and the one casually chilling at The Sink all have one thing in common: They all have LinkedIn open on their laptops.
Senate politicians have been pushing to pass a national security bill that funds aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, but political gridlock in the House of Representatives is preventing it from passing swiftly. House Speaker Mike Johnson declared the bill “dead on arrival” in the House, if it passed the Senate.
There is something sacrilegious about being transgender. One sheds everything that is sacred about being woman or man: the sanctity behind living out the life blessed to one by the divine. The irony is that I write this as someone raised nonreligious. To this day, I don’t logically buy the stories of the Bible or the validity of its institutions. It’s debauched, then, that I have still chosen, either consciously or not, to impose a worldview of religious gender and sexuality on myself. But what is a logical acknowledgement does not belie the irrational recognitions we all have.
We are living in an era of rapid technological growth, the dawn of remarkable innovation. As much as he is disliked, it would be disingenuous to deny thatElon Musk is, in many ways, a trailblazer[b]. But seeing what his most recent invention is capable of gives rise to an unsettling thought: Many years from today, it is likely Musk will be viewed not as a pinnacle of progress, but a man whose dangerous pursuits eventually serve as the impetus for our collective decay.
Beliefs about queerness being dangerous to children are not new. Ever since the gay liberation movement began gaining traction, accusations of corrupting children and pedophilia have been hurled at people in the LGBTQ+ community. Today, these boogeymen manifest in many ways, such as bans on books and drag shows, and “Don’t Say Gay” laws like the one infamously passed in Florida in 2022. It can be easy to write these issues off as disturbing quirks of deep-red states like Tennessee and Florida, but these issues can and do occur everywhere, even in more liberal states like Massachusetts.
In the U.S., we have nearly as many acres of lawn as we do acres of national parks — 40 to 50 million. Green grass lawns were first popularized in Europe, in the landscaping of elegant properties such as the palace of Versailles. These lawns were mirrored by American elites like Thomas Jefferson, who had turfgrass installed at his Monticello estate in Virginia.
The Supreme Court’s popularity has reached an all-time low following a series of tumultuous decisions. In June 2022, the long-standing legal precedent of Roe v. Wade was overturned in the high-profile Dobbs v. Jackson case. Since then, the six conservative justices who hold the majority on the bench, have weakened the Environmental Protection Agency and gutted affirmative action in college admissions.
In recent years, the “Marriage Capital of the World” has managed to divorce itself from excessive water use. Las Vegas, the Nevada city known globally for opulent casinos, luxurious hotels and superb restaurants, has championed water conservation as a major item on its agenda. Despite its desert geography, Las Vegas has stood out for recycling water since the early 2000s.
When my parents dropped me off at Tufts, they did not give me the run-of-the-mill advice to “make new friends” and “study hard,” but they did tell me to stay away from the frats. As professors who live a block away from their university, my parents have seen the drunken aftermath of college parties, and worse, the risk Greek life poses to the safety structure of college.
The jets whistled over south Beirut on Jan. 2, 2024. For the first time since 2006, Israel had bombed Lebanon’s capital. Israel broke the rules of the game, going beyond southern Lebanon and targeting Beirut in an operation reminiscent of the 1982 and 2006 Israeli-Lebanese Wars. Since Oct. ...
In the past decade, we’ve seen the median age of politicians in Congress climb. At the same time, however, we have seen influential younger members of Congress, including Gen Z Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., and millennial Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. Overall, the House is getting younger. Young voters were instrumental in generating Democrats’ success in the 2022 midterms. In future elections, young candidates should be at the forefront.
Jannik Sinner conquered all at the Australian Open last month. The 22-year-old Italian dominated the lower-ranked players and overcame challenges in the later rounds to win the title, his first Grand Slam. With this crowning achievement, Sinner moved closer to the coveted title of world No. 1 — currently held by Novak Djokovic — and cemented his reputation in the tennis world.
If I had to pinpoint my favorite thing about living in the Boston area, it would have to be the architecture: Victorian houses in pastel hues, cobblestone paths leading up to charming high rises and quaint cafes sprinkled throughout bustling neighborhoods. And how can you forget the magic of New England’s fall foliage transposed on these architectural wonders?
With a turbulent primary underway, the Republican field of eight candidates has been whittled down to just two: former President Donald Trump, who’s battling four criminal indictments, and former governor of South Carolina Nikki Haley. After two state primary elections and looking at current polling, Trump is vastly outpacing Haley. He recently polled 26 points ahead of Haley in South Carolina, the state of the next primary and Haley’s home turf.
Given the current political turmoil and societal tendency to attack an individual for one verbal slip-up or ill-informed decision, being the president of a university is a virtual death trap. Often seen as the face of the university, a college president represents hundreds of thousands of students, faculty and alumni. As they make decisions and statements, they juggle both approval and morality.
Last year, $13 billion was pulled from Environmental, Social and Governance funds, marking a significant downturn in contributions to these ‘sustainable’ investment options. ESG investing targets companies that value environmental awareness, social impact and effective governance. They rely on the idea that these companies involve less long-term risk than companies deemed most profitable by traditional investment analysis.
Op-ed submissions are an integral part of our connection with you, our readers. As such, we would like to clarify our guidelines for submitting op-eds and what you can expect from the process.
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