A fundamental right for women
For as long as the United States government has existed, it has been shirking a critical moral obligation. We are talking, of course, about our nation’s failure to protect the right of every woman to receive an affordable abortion on demand.
HDAG fails to represent
The resignation last week of UA representative to the House Dining Advisory Group underscores its shortcomings. HDAG members have repeatedly defended the current dining plan by pointing to student input throughout the process, with the students on HDAG often being some of its loudest supporters (see this issue’s letter to the editor, “Misrepresentation of student HDAG members” by three house presidents).
The intimate civic duty
The Declaration of Independence states that man is endowed by his Creator the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This recognition of universal, sacred, and unalienable rights defines us as the American people and dictates what functions the state should provide. Further, the Declaration orders these rights: without life one cannot exercise liberty, and without liberty one cannot pursue happiness.
The case for Iran: moving toward mutual diplomacy
Both the historic diplomatic accomplishments that took place this spring between Brazil, Turkey, and Iran and this summer’s imposition of strict economic sanctions upon the latter nation signal a dire need for a new diplomatic strategy between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The fundamental right to life
In his article “Abortion: A question of values,” Keith Yost arrives at the conclusion that an embryo is a human life and has a right to life, but that the mother’s right to liberty may supersede the embryo’s right to life. We find his logic deeply flawed, and condemn the fundamental disregard for human life introduced by the application of relativism to human rights.<b></b>
Don’t vote!
Your vote doesn’t matter. It really doesn’t. You can do the math yourself — imagine a close House race in which each voter has a 51 percent chance of voting for one candidate, 49 percent for another, and around 300,000 voters are expected to turn out. What are the chances that the marginal vote matters, i.e. without your input, the race would split exactly 150,000 to 150,000?
Letters to the Editor
I read your article about the redevelopment of the 181 Mass. Ave. Analog Devices by Novartis with great interest. This site had a sophisticated microfabrication facility that easily could have been transformed into a new nanofabrication facility for MIT’s use. Having a state of the art nanofabrication facility is essential to achieve excellence in nanoscience and nanotechnology.
Why TEAL works
In the years leading up to 2000, the MIT Physics Department realized it had a problem. Despite great lecturers such as Walter Lewin, attendance at physics lectures fell 40 percent by the end of the term. In addition, an average of 10 percent of students failed 8.01 (Mechanics) and 14 percent of students failed 8.02 (Electricity and Magnetism). So MIT did what it does best: It solved the problem.
The strength of the Latino vote
The political stage has been tarnished, and the politicians greased up by the yearlong mudslinging. Mean words have been exchanged. Feelings were hurt. Losers will go home crying. This is better than ESPN — this is politics at its dirtiest. Incumbent Democratic Senator Harry Reid will face off against the menacing newcomer Republican and Tea Partier Sharron Angle in the upcoming Nevada Senate race.
Letters to the Editor
I was pleasantly surprised the other day to find that the Smoot marks on the Harvard Bridge had been repainted. Some markings died off (3OH!3 which popped up last year didn’t last) while other clever new ones like the “214 Smoots” mark appeared. Also, an unappealing bit of vandalism near the 60 Smoots mark has been kindly painted over. However, as I was walking to class, a few things stuck out to me. All the characters had rough outlines, the font and size was wildly varied, and instead of an interesting variation of yellow, purple, and green markings, there were simply three blocks of a single color along the bridge. By the time I reached campus, I was slightly disappointed to find myself thinking that the repainting of the Smoots had been done with less care than in the past.
MIT Investment Management Company disregards the City of Cambridge
<i>Editor’s note: This was an open letter was addressed to MIT President Susan Hockfield.</i>
Abortion: A question of values
I don’t like writing about social issues. In part, this is because they seem so insignificant. Why should I care about the passage or overturning of Prop 8 (a gay marriage ban in California) when that state already offers domestic partnerships that provide all the same rights as marriage? Does it really matter whether a violent criminal spends his entire life behind bars or is put to death? How can the issue of marijuana legalization rate more highly in anyone’s mind when Social Security is insolvent?
A comprehensive look at the <br />‘It Gets Better’ campaign
As president and vice-president of G@MIT (GLBT at MIT, a student group at MIT devoted to creating a queer-positive environment), we thought it would be important for us to contextualize and point out a few concerns to Michael Veldman’s ’14 opinion piece published on October 19.
“It Gets Better” on the right track
In response to Michael Veldman’s piece regarding the “It Gets Better” campaign, I can’t help but wonder: Is the concern truly about the project itself, or his perception of celebrity charity showboating?
Foolish and common
In this Sunday’s edition of the New York Times, Paul Krugman PhD ’77 has written a little piece called “Rare and Foolish.” In it, Krugman laments the concentration of rare earths mining industry in China, saying it has given them extraordinary leverage over other nations, and lambasts U.S. leaders (particularly Bush) for letting the industry slip away into foreign hands.
“It Gets Better” needs to do more
In an October 15 column in <i>The Tech</i>, Andy Liang expressed his support for the “It Gets Better” campaign, started in response to the recent suicides by LGBT youth. On the face of it, the campaign seems impossible to criticize — what could be wrong with giving hope to desperate and lonely gay teenagers across America?