Tag: opinion

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A Quiet Place to Stay: 24 Hours a Day

By Caleb Kasper

The life of a college student can often be quite busy. Finding time to finish assignments, work through readings, and studying can be challenging for some. As a self-proclaimed “night owl,” I feel like my peak efficiency and focus doesn’t set in until later into the evening. There’s nothing else that I continually fail at doing than getting busy in the morning and early afternoons.

​My typical day generally consists of a few classes in the morning and afternoon. Mixed in with chapel and grabbing lunch, there tends to be little time to sit down and get to work. Like many others on this campus, I’m also a student-athlete, so each weekday, I block out roughly two hours of my day for practices, as well as various other times on weekends and weekdays for competition. As a member of the cross country and track teams, I eat dinner with my team most nights. Given this, by the time eight o‘clock rolls around, I’ve likely just begun figuring out what needs to be done for the next day. If I shower before homework, we’re talking 8:30. With a more demanding schedule as a second-semester junior, I’ve been engaged in a lot more focused work this year. When I need to grind and focus, the environment I am in plays a big role. Without the right environment, I struggle to focus.

​I’d imagine that a good number of people reading this find a quiet environment with little distraction to be key to focusing. I can’t focus in my room because my bed is always calling my name with open arms. Floor lounges in the resident halls can be hit or miss as well. Chamberlain is okay but usually occupied, and I find the Campus Center to be quite distracting. I realize that others like my sister, recent Houghton graduate Zoey Kasper, prefer a more active study space. Hers consisted of the most comfortable bean bag you’ve ever experienced, disco balls, and music. The bean bag alone would tank any of my plans to be productive. If you share similar preferences to me, though, you may find the library to be the perfect spot. Generally very quiet, not often busy, and an abundance of resources and outlets. Outlets are a must since my laptop battery capacity has significantly deteriorated since my freshman year.

​When I choose to go to the library during the week, I roll up around 8-8:30 p.m. I’ve found the library basement to be a preferred spot. Not to be taboo either, but the library’s basement has some of the best bathrooms on campus. When I’m down there I can always get focused and work more efficiently. However, like most things, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. About 1.5-2 hrs into my work session I am kindly reminded to wrap things up because the library is closing in ten minutes. I pack up my belongings and head out, trying to puzzle when I can cram in everything that I didn’t finish. I’ve also been getting to the point where I just don’t go there that much anymore, because it’s not worth packing up all my stuff and heading over there just to pack it all up again soon after I arrive and either head somewhere else or straight to bed. There also aren’t many convenient times for me to go that are available either.

​The library is open Monday through Thursday until 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday until 5 p.m., and is closed Sunday. It was during my Sophomore Year that I decided to make my first personal visit to the Library to do some homework. I remember looking up the hours just to see what they were. I was shocked to see that at 10:11, the library had already been closed for 11 minutes. I always thought that college libraries were open 24/7 so that students always had a quiet space to read or work or get away from their roommate who likes cats too much. Quite honestly, I think the library should be open 24/7, or at least open for students to use later, especially on weekends. Obviously, the library can only be staffed during the day, but couldn’t it be open longer for studying?

​This is especially true during finals season. As somewhat of a procrastinator, the time during and surrounding finals week becomes extremely busy. It’s also a time where I am consistently convinced that it’s time to drop out, yet I keep coming back for more. All of the work that I had put off during the semester comes back to confront me and there is a looming sense that there’s more to get done than time in the day. Not having access to the library while working late can be highly inconvenient and frustrating during finals.

I think the student body could greatly benefit from a review of the library hours and possibly extending them. For all the student-athletes, procrastinators, science majors (praying for you all), night-owls, all-nighters, or whatever reasons you’re up late doing homework, you should have the freedom and accessibility to study in a quiet space whenever you need to. Everyone has late nights. ★

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Opinions

Loving Our Neighbors

By Skye Chaapel

Mark 12:29-31 (NIV) “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

As a Christian community, I feel we need to ask ourselves this: are we following Christ’s example?  Are we loving our neighbors to the best of our capabilities, as asked of us by Christ?  If you ask people within the Houghton community, I’m sure they’d say yes.  However, while there are some of us who are loving our neighbors, there are others who are not.  They could be saying yes out of the want to look good for themselves or others, denial, or ignorance.  These are questions that I have been truly struggling with for a while.

What if we asked the question: “Do you feel loved on campus?”  What would you expect the answer to be?  One would hope that the answer is a resounding yes, as we are all Christians, called to love.  Unfortunately, I know far too many students who do not feel loved by the Houghton community, myself included.  Those of us who differ from the Wesleyan traditions’ expectations are generally treated as outcasts on campus.  This includes people of a different ethnicity and race, the LGBTQ+ community, people with disabilities, and people of different religious backgrounds.

For me, one of the major drawing points to Houghton four years ago was the close-knit community that existed on campus; it was something you could feel, and it almost felt tangible.  After some of the recent events though, I feel like I no longer belong here.  I know students who have received death threats, unwelcome comments, or racial slurs depending on their identity or race.  Houghton University’s President also received unacceptable slurs on his birthday card last year.  As a community, we should be appalled that this is happening and that we have allowed it to continue.  What happened to loving our neighbors?  There is no love that comes from those actions.  The Houghton community is striving to be an ideal Christian community, but many do not feel welcome here.  We can not have a Christian community that is founded on Jesus if there are members of it who are suffering from our actions.

We need to learn to love each other.  We do not always need to agree on things, but that should not stop us from extending God’s grace and love to each other.  Jesus taught us to love and not to judge others.  You do not know what someone else could be struggling with at any moment.  Be kind and be willing to keep an open mind when interacting with others.  As the followers of Christ, we are called to meet people where they are, be with them, and walk with them in their journey. ★

If you or someone you know is the target of hateful behaviors, we encourage you to reach out to the Office of Student Life.

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Freshman Thoughts: Life at Houghton

By Caleb Welker

Being a freshman here at Houghton has been quite the experience, to say the least.  These past eight weeks have had their fair share of highs and lows, but through all of it, I can say it’s been pretty fun.  When I came here, I found myself almost instantly pulled right into the community.  As a member of the baseball team at Houghton, I didn’t need to wait long to find people who I was going to be spending a lot of time with.  I remember walking up to Lambein Hall and being instantly greeted by Coach Reitnour and an upperclassman baseball player.  Being a student-athlete has already provided me with long days of practicing and class. I didn’t know how difficult it would be to balance my academic, social, and athletic life, but Houghton came to my aid very quickly.

In my first week of classes, I could already tell how much the professors cared. Their instant connection to us as students was evident in their opening lectures. Being at a school where the professors know you and truly want to help you succeed is an amazing thing that not many people get to experience. One of my favorite classes I have taken so far this year is Introduction to Communication Theory. I take this class with Professor Gaerte, who has made an 8 A.M class way more fun than it should be.  Although I dread waking up and dragging myself to the library to sit in class, I’ve always been drawn in quickly by him.  He also is a prime example of how much the professors here care, as he is constantly making conversation with me, whether it be about baseball or just how my day is going. He always seems to make an effort to talk to me.    

Being a member of the baseball team here has provided me with so many opportunities in the last eight weeks alone.  Team events have included meals together every day, trips to the weight room at six in the morning, and late night practices in the freezing cold. We have also participated in events such as sitting together, being very loud at volleyball games and working the Harvest Festival at Houghton Wesleyan Church.  Whatever you want to do, there’s someone there to do it with you.  After four weeks of practice, it felt very odd within the last few weeks not having to block practice out of my day, but I managed to figure some things out to make sure I wasn’t too bored.
With Houghton’s location, there’s not really a lot to do off-campus. First of all, before I got here, I got a job as the Women’s soccer team’s public address announcer and scoreboard operator. Throughout the season, I got to watch the team’s games, announce the goals and substitutions, keep track of the score and time on the board, and struggle to pronounce the names of the opposing teams’ players. I found myself becoming very invested in the success of the team throughout the season, at points having to contain myself after goals, remembering I have a job to do.  The job gave me experience in the field of athletics, and I got paid to watch a sport, so that was pretty cool.

Another connection that I have here at Houghton is through my family.  I don’t know if you have realized reading this yet, but I share a last name with the Opinions Editor of the Star. At first, I told everyone I wasn’t going to Houghton because I didn’t want to be at the same school as my older brother.  Obviously, my opinions changed because, well I’m here, but having a sibling at Houghton has given me another connection.  I was able to say hi to his friends and impress some other Freshmen by knowing upperclassmen.  Plus, it hasn’t been anything like what I thought it would be like, we aren’t right on top of each other. It’s cool to see a family member here as I do miss my family, but we really do have separate lives here, and we can spend time together, but it’s not like we’re home.

Other Freshmen and I have had different experiences. I know that I’ve helped some people by telling them the things I picked up about Houghton before I even came here from my brother, and I know of people whose experiences here have been quite different from mine. Many people here at Houghton have different experiences and can answer the question, “What does Houghton mean to you?” very differently.  I know people who aren’t athletes, who seem to be shocked when I tell them I had to wake up early for practice.  But those same people are there to listen to me, when I’m annoyed with a class, not that that ever happens, or just need somebody to talk to.  And that’s really what makes Houghton beautiful.  Sure we spend a lot of our time with different groups of people, but we truly all come together to make the Houghton family.

All in all, Houghton has already been amazing in the short time that I’ve been here.  The community here has shown me why the people I know who attended loved the school so much.  The small closeness of this campus and the community of students, faculty, and staff really have made my time here special and makes me look forward to the rest of my four years here. ★

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Opinions

Don’t Check Out of Inconvenient Community

By Isabelle Murch

Let’s get the air cleared: I said it. I said our favorite-and-also-least-favorite Houghton word, the one that we love to hate on, but can never find a suitable replacement for. For better or worse, community has become our defining word, printed on Pres. Mullen t-shirts, made into memes, and always followed by a laugh. 

Community is a harmless word when it’s easy. And it’s great when it benefits us. It’s not hard to invest our time into late-night adventures or deep conversations. It becomes much harder to be a pro-community place when that community is inconvenient to us, interrupting our goals or daily life. 

Some of my favorite stories about Jesus happen when he’s interrupted. In fact, I’m not sure how often Jesus actually gets to where he’s going. Someone always seems to demand his attention. A bleeding woman grabs his cloak. A Roman Centurion begs for his daughter to be healed. A blind man shouts at him from the side of the road. Christ’s ministry revolves around inconvenient people. 

But how often do we let Christ’s example shape how we view those around us? Addressing inconvenience isn’t easy, and the busyness of homework, internal and environmental stress, and our personal preferences often take precedence over investing in our community. We remove ourselves from difficult conversations, avoid people we find annoying, and check out of gatherings that don’t suit our purpose.  

What’s at stake when we don’t put forth effort? If we look to Christ’s example, I’d say a lot. Think of the Gospel of Matthew, when disciples rebuke parents for bringing their children to Jesus. Instead of standing by his closest friends, Jesus says to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” Not only does Christ disagree with his friends, he posits that the children, an undervalued population in ancient Judea, will inherit God’s kingdom. This suggests that “the least of these” are not only an acceptable but integral and important part of God’s vision for God’s people. 

Jesus seeks out everyone: groups with radical and uncomfortable ideas, exploiters and oppressors, women, disabled people, oppressed racial groups, legalistic religious leaders, blue-collar workers, doubters and worriers and children. The kingdom of God isn’t homogeneous by any stretch of the imagination, and when we act as if the ones worthy of our love and attention are the ones easiest for us to love, we are missing the point. We need to engage with those we find inconvenient and to realize that many times, we are the inconvenience. 

In our annual All Hall Meeting, Resident Director Raegan Zelaya likes to make the distinction between a “Renting” versus an “Owning” Mentality. When we live in the residence halls, we can act as if our space is not ours, treating it as temporary and of low value. We don’t care, and we don’t need to. As an owner, though, we carry responsibility. We have to deal with leaks and pests. But, our experience is much richer. We get to carry the pride of our work and care and hold authority in the spaces we’re in. In the same way, we can look at our communities through the lens of a renter or owner. We can rent our time at Houghton, staying away from difficult community while missing out on the joys that a full kingdom of God brings, or we could own our inconveniences, raising the stakes but greatly increasing our return on investment. 

How can we practice this? I think all of us can participate in owning our Houghton community. First, we must identify who and what we find “inconvenient.” It might be a person whom we find a little awkward, a group we strongly disagree with, or an experience like chapel or class. Naming and understanding our tendencies can help us identify our biases and learn to combat them. Second, we need to lean in rather than check out. There are plenty of ways we can do this, from being intentional with everyone who crosses our path to putting our phones away during a chapel service. Third, we can work to not only change our behaviors but also our attitudes toward inconvenient people. Interruptions can become opportunities to share Christ’s love, and inconveniences can turn into practices of patience and extending grace to others. 

While community lands like a joke to most of our ears, it’s also our most important task during our time on campus. We can choose to check in and out, like a hotel that’s not ours to keep, or we can invest in a home worth having. ★

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Opinions

Johnny Cash, Longfellow, and Peace.

joanna-friesen-rgb
Photo by: Anthony Burdo

I love Johnny Cash. Yes, I said love. Not like, not appreciate, not admire. Now that that is solidified, onward. Around Advent, my favorite song is “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day,” and particularly the version sung by the aforementioned star of country western. This is adapted from a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow called “Christmas Bells.” In the piece, Longfellow muses on the centuries-long tradition of the church proclaiming peace in contradiction to Christmas in the midst of the American Civil War. He laments; “and in despair I bowed my head; ‘There is no peace on earth,” I said; “For hate is strong, and mocks the song of peace on earth, good-will to men!’”

How did Longfellow resolve this? He trusted that the witness of peace, even amidst war, would ultimately prevail, although in 1863 he could not see peace immediately. “Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:  ‘God is not dead, nor doth He sleep; the Wrong shall fail, the Right prevail, with peace on earth, good-will to men.’” Symbolically, bells entail resurrection, celebration, and the marking of occasions.

What are we to do in the tensions of life? War and peace. Refugees and comfortable American suburbanites. Historical witness and present reality. Especially in Christmas, there is the age-old temptation to suspend reality and exist in a sugar-coated bubble. Turn on “Frosty the Snowman,” decorate a fake tree, spray pine perfume on it, veg out on frosted cookies, exchange gifts churned out in the factory of big box stores and materialism, and call it a night.

I really don’t like Christmas music. The music that fits at Christmas time are the songs that get at this tension. These are the songs that are honest about the disjunctions of life, “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus,” “I Heard the Bells On Christmas Day,” and “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.” These songs admit that there is a gap between the hopes of Christmas, and the present reality. Although we celebrate, we recognize that peace is not normative, and must continue to be hoped for, even 2,000 years plus down the line.

joannaquoteWe celebrate that Christ has come, yet in the same story Herod is slaughtering the innocents, and the holy family flees to Egypt as refugees. There is an expectation of peace, and an “already but not yet” tension. How can we celebrate Christmas, yet witness in faithfulness that acknowledges the tension?

For the sake of the full circle, back to Johnny Cash. My favorite song of his is “Man in Black”. Here, he describes the purpose of his wardrobe. He consistently wore black, and if you listen to them right, most of his songs were preacher-songs, describing the pain and the ups and downs of human life. He wore black to identify with the “beaten down,” amidst the current culture of “streak of lightnin’ cars and fancy clothes,” reasoning that “I’d love to wear a rainbow every day, and tell the world that everything’s OK, but I’ll try to carry off a little darkness on my back,

’till things are brighter, I’m the Man In Black.”

At Christmas, as odd as it sounds, it seems right to follow in the footsteps of Johnny Cash.

Joanna is a senior theology major.

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Opinions

The Privilege and Honor of Chivalry

What is chivalry? Quite the fairy tale-like topic, you may think. Not at all. Chivalry is much more than the romanticized deeds of a prince for a princess, of the likes we see in Disney classics. This tradition has, through the years, remained equally important. It is, in my opinion, a stipulation for all men, or at least those who wish to be one someday, to consider.

To answer this question, I’ll begin by briefly looking to the gifted writers, Sir Thomas Malory and C.S. Lewis, hopefully you’ve at least heard of the latter.

Photo by: Nate Moore
Photo by: Nate Moore

Lewis’ “Necessity of Chivalry” isolates a particular quote within Malory’s “Le Morte d’Aurthur,” written in the late 1400s, as a basis for understanding what this idea of chivalry could actually mean. Malory writes in regards to his character, Sir Lancelot: “Thou wert the meekest man that ever ate in hall among ladies; and thou wert the sternest knight…” For the sake of time, I’ll focus on the first portion, which will give us a firm starting point for explaining chivalry.

Chivalrous men are meek, particularly among ladies. By definition, being meek means to be quiet or gentle natured; synonymous with tame, humble, and submissive. They are not called to be boastful, arrogant, nor demanding of women. Along with humility and submissiveness, I am convinced that sacrifice and service would also follow as a response. These acts of service that I speak about, could be the typical chivalrous deeds of the twenty-first century that may easily come to mind: holding the door for a lady, providing for her, speaking kindly to her or any other similar deed. While these examples are indeed wonderful starts to chivalry, the overall concept of men intentionally placing women above themselves is the significant one that must be observed. Women are to be respected, honored, and loved through all of our actions. Recognizing and aiming for this helps direct one’s actions towards our goal of chivalry.

The difficult part about this in the modern world is the implication that intentional service to women, helping them with various things, by men could be characterized as sexist, which is indeed far from the truth.

connorquoteUndoubtedly, acts of chivalry can be easily confused for sexism or paternalism, where, at times, similar actions to chivalry can be driven from the idea that men need to help women because of their superiority. It is quite obvious that there are a number of men who would agree with this false need. It is because of this that I will not discount misunderstandings. While one man may walk around the vehicle to open the door for a woman, thinking to himself, “I better help, or else I’m sure she’ll end up hurting my car…or herself,” another man may do the same action while thinking quite differently, “I want to serve this woman, whom deserves all that I can give.” The differences are, of course, the intentions of each man. Performing chivalrous deeds don’t make a man chivalrous; the heart must align with the action (similar to that of 1 Corinthians 13:1.) A chivalrous man would not believe that he is superior to a woman, as it would directly conflict with our starting point of meekness,which, again, is synonymous with humility. Over time, I believe that paternalistic men (like the man in the first example) will have their wrong intentions brought into the light, based off of their other surrounding actions. This is where we can find distinction.

You see, I think of chivalry as a privilege and opportunity for men to be servants to women. Not because women need men (at times, quite the opposite), but because it is an expression of love, real love. After all, are men not called to love their wives in Ephesians?

While this is an assertion to men, it is respectively a call for women to embrace it. Just as a man may show his love through chivalry, a woman may show hers back through accepting it as a gift. Every woman deserves to be treated with love and gentleness by men, without exception. I am confident that through striving for chivalry, this treatment can become a reality. Consider it an honor to be treated with such humility of service, and let the gentle and caring men be so to you, without settling for anything less.

I do not write this in response to any movement of feminism; I write this in the strong belief that there are a great many things that we can learn from our past traditions, even the oldest, most romanticized, and that when applied, gradually, our society can become a better place.

Connor is a senior business major with a minor in communication.

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Ambiguity and Confusion in the Imitation of God

As a kid, my parents bravely took me on a trip to the geysers at Yellowstone National Park. This was daring because they were taking me out on a wooden walkway, surrounded by boiling water mixed with sulfur. I remember being terrified that the wooden structure would break, and my entire family would plummet to our boiling doom. I thought it much better to remain on the dry land, away from the scary wooden walkway, where nothing bad could possibly happen.

Courtesy of travel.nationalgeographic.com
Courtesy of travel.nationalgeographic.com

My mother would have none of this. She had dragged two squawling toddlers across the continent, and had no intention of remaining on the boring, dry land when she could be walking six inches above a boiling geyser. As I loudly denounced her, she dragged me by my skinny wrist out to the observation platform. Every time I tried to bolt, she would bring me back, until it finally dawned on me that the wooden walkway was not in fact going to plunge us into Nature’s cauldron.

As a senior in high school, I was pulled aside by a well-meaning, but very conservative, friend. He was afraid that “those professors” with their theories would undermine my pure, simple, uncritical faith. He was afraid I would wander off the walkway of faith, and boil to death in the sulfurous world of academics. Little did he know how correct he would prove to be.

At Houghton, I have learned to doubt. I have learned to doubt simple answers, quick replies and the reduction of life to the formulaic. There are very few parts of my pre-college life that I haven’t learned to doubt. Morality? Check. Faith? Check. Political affiliation? Check. Social views? Check. Star Wars vs. Star Trek? Check. The list goes on and on, until at last I realize that I have, at some point or another throughout my college years, held every single opinion on almost every issue Out There in the world. I have waffled between the isms like a sail in a crosswind.

I also doubt whether this is a bad thing.

There must be a space for ambiguity in this world. Back on that wooden walkway in Yellowstone, I was convinced we were about to topple into the geyser. My four year old brain knew nothing about structural integrity or about the fact that wood floats on water. I didn’t know that the government sent out inspectors to make sure that no one plunged to their doom in the geyser. The entire regulatory and building structure of modern society was almost entirely unknown to me. I hadn’t learned to trust the world.

Nor would I have learned about the trustworthiness of modern carpentry if I hadn’t eventually wandered out onto that wooden walkway. The only way to learn to trust is to nearly fall into boiling water. I could hardly have known, later in life, that airport terminal arms, skyscrapers, bridges, or the infamous road climbing into the Dalmatian hillside called “The Stairway to Heaven” were reliable if I hadn’t learned to trust that walkway.

Similarly, I could hardly learn to trust modern society and its multitude of intellectual, spiritual and moral developments without going through a period of complete bewilderment and ambiguity. As human beings, we can’t learn without experiencing confusion, and we can’t love without feeling pain. Houghton’s official religion, Christianity, contains this belief at its core.  God entered the particularity and confusion of human existence, and felt pain, in order that we might understand love.

Here’s to ambiguity and confusion in imitation of God. Here’s to inching out slowly, ever so slowly, onto the wooden walkway. Here’s to continuing to study and analyze and synthesize. May you never wander off the walkway, but please don’t remain back on the land looking anxious. If I try to bolt to the land, make sure I don’t succeed, and when you try to bolt I’ll drag you back to the observation deck. The confusion and the uncertainty is good, and ambiguity is actually healthy, for this is the only way to learn to love. May God protect us all from the denial of confusion, and the elimination of ambiguity.

 

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News Opinions

Iraq 10 Years after the Invasion

It has been controversial since it began.  It divided Americans: some watching as the number of troop deaths mounted, others warning that the costs were worth it if Saddam Hussein’s threat of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) had any merit.  After over one trillion dollars invested in the country, no WMDs discovered at all, the capture and execution of Saddam Hussein, 4,000 dead American soldiers and over 130,000 Iraqi civilian deaths, many still wonder whether the Iraq war was worth it.

Courtesy of propublica.org
Courtesy of propublica.org

The average current college student was 10 to 11 years old when the invasion began.  I remember staying up with my Dad late that night watching television and waiting for the bombs to fall on Baghdad, Iraq’s capital.  I remember the “Mission Accomplished” banner after the fall of Baghdad just a few short weeks later.  Then the insurgency began, for which nobody was prepared.

Bush’s claim that cutting off the head of the problem would immediately resolve it proved to be wrong as the United States found itself bogged down with al-Qaeda groups and Shi’a extremists using car and suicide bombs in hope of dominating each other through attempting to get their respective populations to hate and kill each other.  It looked as though the United States was about to fail miserably, as critics said it would whenever the country attempts “nation-building”.

But then the surge happened and, after 120,000 U.S. soldiers were sent to Iraq, along with “Awakening Councils” that joined the U.S. troops to drive out al-Qaeda (whose brutal tactics had alienated large swaths of Sunnis), violence began to decline.  As security increased, investments for Iraq’s oil reserves, which some argue are larger than Iran’s, helped to bring more stability to the country.  Even after U.S. troops withdrew in December 2011, violence has remained relatively low.  There are still the occasional bombings, such as the one that killed over 60 Iraqis on the anniversary of the invasion, but, overall, Iraq remains much more stable than it was throughout the insurgency.

However, problems remain.  Iraq is a shaky democracy set up to distribute power equally among the three big ethnic groups: Shi’a, Sunni and Kurd.  But after the attempted arrest of a Sunni vice president for supposedly running death squads, arguments began between the central government and autonomous Kurd regions. These debates were over who has rights to oil reserves. With numerous Arab Spring-style protests against the government of Nuri al-Maliki, a Shi’a that Sunnis accuse of becoming increasingly dictatorial, and suicide bombings continually trying to stir sectarian tensions, Americans may wonder if, in fact, the U.S. should have ever even invaded in the first place.

In the end, nobody can say that the United States made the right choice.  Regardless of the critics that say it only stirred ethnic tensions, Iraq never did slip into a civil war or become a failed state.  At the same time, a democracy was set up, but it remains incredibly fragile, particularly considering that for almost 11 months in 2010 the country could not form a government due to political infighting between Shi’a and Sunni politicians. Nevertheless, economically, the country has been recovering; tourism flourishes as millions of Shi’a pilgrims flock to mosques and shrines throughout the country.  Foreign direct investment in the country’s oil reserves has helped to rebuild a crumbling infrastructure, and in the Kurdish regions cities bustle and commerce thrives, with virtually no violence.  The Sunnis, however, claim to be finding themselves marginalized politically and economically, creating the potential for a new conflict as frustrations rise.

Whether or not you agree that it was a good idea to invade Iraq, never forget that despite the bad, many good things have happened in the country.  This is a milestone for our generation and continues to be pertinent to an American foreign policy that promotes the establishment of liberal democracy around the world, as liberal democracies do not fight each other.  Based on this logic, this war was in America’s national interest.  A good choice?  I am not sure, but it is something that will have a large impact in the Middle East for years to come.

Caleb Johnson is a third-year student with a double-major in international relations and history.

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Opinions

Restructuring Senate: The Answer for SGA?

“The last thing Senate needs is to worry more about Senate.”

This sentiment was recently expressed to a Star staff member, telling a student’s frustration with the latest amendment effort springing from the Student Government Association.

This amendment, alluded to by the said student, is a push by SGA toward “re-structuring Senate” in hopes of more accurately representing the Houghton student body within SGA itself. It would appear that a side hope of SGA regarding the possible structural overhaul would be an increase in student body interest in their representative body.

Currently, there are three senators per class, and eight senators-at-large. There are no other pre-requisites besides being a member of their class, and/or interest in being a senator. As a result, the general population of the Student Senate may be dominated by students from a certain demographic, such as a political science major.

The proposed changes would transform this Senate into an assembly composed of three senators for each class, a senator from each residence hall or area, one senator from varsity athletics, and a senator representing each academic category (of which categories there are seven). As of yet, SGA has not reached a consensus on how many senators would comprise the final group—the only word so far, is between 6-8. This brings the final potential total of senators between 24-26, since each senator may only represent one category.

That the Senate currently struggles with representing the student body at large is not a question the Star staff debates. Restructuring the student’s representative body in a way that better reflects the student body is a noble, worthy aim. Accurate representation is always something to be appreciated, and one that has obvious merits. Rather, our question has to do with the apparent hopes SGA has cast upon this proposed change: hopes that by increasing the accuracy of their representation, they will increase their relevance to the student body.

During a recent Senate meeting, a question was asked that sums up the heart of what is at stake. The student’s question asked what exactly has brought on the need for this proposed amendment. The answer given by SGA Vice President Ben Hardy was that “there is a massive disconnect between other students and the students in this room about what the Student Government does. Sometimes it’s just a joke, but sometimes it seems serious when people ask what we do besides Donut Day. Hopefully a [forum] will give us a better sampling.”

As noble as a more accurate representation is, increased relevance to the student body does not necessarily follow from this proposed change. The last thing Senate needs to become more relevant to the current student body of Houghton College is to look inside, and change itself. Too much introspection on the part of Senate, and too much inward, SGA-focused work is exactly why Houghton students seem tired of giving attention to SGA, as indicated by comments such as the one given by the student above.

The Student Government would do well to expand outside itself, if it wishes to be known for more than its donuts. It well-enacts this outward focus in notable, appreciated areas such as the regular blood drives, and the various service days and projects it undertakes. Through these efforts of uniting the student body with community members, SGA performs valuable, visible work. It is through these visible, external projects that the Student Government forms a face and identity by which it may be known to students, and known for its impact.

Student Government’s current quest for greater relevance and a more visible face is better pursued by a continuation of their external activities and community projects on a larger scale than by another focus on inward dynamics.

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Fear Mongering and Media Bias

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Fear Mongering

Over the course of the last couple years the discussion over gun control has been gaining momentum. Unless you lead a secluded life, you have at least heard the incessant hubbub surrounding the debate, if not outright participated.

When the Aurora and Sikh shootings happened over this past summer I followed the ensuing debate very closely. I gained a strong stance against guns. For the most part, the arguments of the predominantly liberal pro-gun control crowd resonated well with me. Guns are designed to kill, and though they are not responsible for high crime rates, easier access provides the opportunity to do more harm, and after all, who needs a 30 round magazines?

Then I heard some interesting statistics revealing that over the course of the last 20 years, crime rates have been dramatically decreasing in the United States.  According to crime stats provided by the FBI, America had a violent crime rate of 757.7 per 100,000 in 1992. Fast forward to 2012, and America’s violent crime rate dropped to 386.3 per 100,000. That is an almost 50 percent decrease. If this is true, why isn’t it better publicized? The media seems to want us to think that we will get shot every time we walk out our front door.

What’s even more surprising is that the United Kingdom—idolized by every good progressive liberal for their strict gun legislation—is, according to the European Commission, the most violent country in Europe. The rate of violent crimes with firearms has in fact doubled since the ban on guns was implemented after the Dublin shootings 20 years ago. According to the Home Office, England and Wales had over 762,515 violent crimes in 2011 alone. For a population of only 56 million, that comes out to a ratio of roughly 1,361 violent crimes per 100,000. That is 3.5 times higher than in the U.S.

Looking closely at the facts, it is evident not only that violence does not decrease with increased legislation, but that the opposite is true: the decrease of legally obtainable weapons leads to an increase in violence. The obvious conclusion is that in either case, people who use firearms for harm do not obtain them legally.

It is true that the U.K. has a slightly lower murder rate—only 1.3 compared to the U.S.’s 4.7— however, there are other factors to consider. The bulk of murders take place in small pockets in metropolitan areas of over 250,000 people. The U.S. has 186 of these metropolitan areas whereas the U.K. only has 32. Needless to say we are just scratching the surface when considering the complexities behind these tragedies.

It is clear that the solution does not lie within stricter gun laws. To suggest such a thing would be to ignore the facts. For example, both Chicago and NYC have a total ban on firearms, yet both cities are at the top of the charts for murder rates. So why would creating more gun restrictions better anything?

The statistics make the suggestions of gun-control seem even more ludicrous. According to the EU Commission the U.S. is not even in the top 25 most violent modern nations. The U.K., Austria, France, Sweden, Finland, and even Canada are ahead in violent crime rates. Based on the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission data, guns aren’t even in the top 10 most common reasons for emergency room visits. Yet the media has a heyday every time there is a violent crime in America. It makes a better story to talk about one crazy man on psychotropic drugs shooting up a school in a state possessing some of the strictest gun laws in place, than to mention the mother in Colorado protecting her twin infants by taking down a home-invader with her .38 special, or the 15 year old boy in Houston who defended his sister against 4 armed home-invaders with his father’s legally obtained AR-15, or, most notably, the woman carrying a concealed weapon at the Hobbit premiere in San Antonio who took down Jesus Garcia, preventing what would have surely resulted in another Aurora-style slaughter. There are countless stories of law abiding citizens defending themselves with legally-obtained weapons.

This is a sensitive issue to be sure. But realize that where the insensitivity lies is in those who manipulate facts surrounding tragic events in order to push their agenda and increase government control.

Our time and energy would be better spent in figuring out how to decrease unemployment and poverty and fix the education systems within the areas with high crime rates, rather than attempting to deprive law abiding citizens of a chance to defend themselves against rapists, home-invaders, and criminals who gain access to illegal weapons.