Think clearly. Act well. Appreciate life.
As I start the year 2021, I think back on my almost twenty-five and a half years of life and of being born into a time of increasing calls for awareness, equity, and justice for human beings, regardless of race, religion, gender, ethnicity, etc. I think about hard conversations, different realities that various groups of …
“You have to do your own research instead of believing everything they tell you.” Have you ever heard this online? Do you get tired of hearing this online? I sure have. Whether it’s about vaccines, election results, global warming, or just that one high school acquaintance selling weight loss products, everyone online seems to be …
One of my houseplants started to wilt last week. Wanting to stop more yellowing or decay, I gave the plant an extra watering. To my dismay, the plant seemed to wilt more rapidly after I doubled its dosage of H2O. I conducted a hasty search on the Internet, wondering what I was missing. After consulting …
As a student of rhetoric, I’m well aware of my obligation to wax eloquent on the democratic process and the power of deliberation on the heels of an historic election, but can I please not, please? Instead I want to talk about punk rock. I was introduced to punk rock in high school when a …
This summer, amid protests for Black Lives Matter, anti-mask movements, and other instances of social unrest, rapper J. Cole penned the lyrics “My IQ is average, there’s a young lady out there, she way smarter than me / I scrolled through her timeline in these wild times, and I started to read . . . …
What will happen tomorrow? As I ask myself this question, I feel, perhaps with many others across the nation and the world, a lurch in my stomach. It’s not an enjoyable question to let lurk in one’s mind, no matter what end of the political spectrum you might land on. Yet the question lurks all …
There have been different times throughout history when marginalized groups have received greater recognition, more rights, and greater power in their communities and nations. However, a major problem that occurs at the same time is that only a part of these marginalized groups seems to progress forward, causing other members of the group, who could …
Prologue In her song, “Little Good News”, Canadian songstress Ann Murray sang about the turbulence that marked the 70s and 80s. Her line in the chorus “We all could use a little good news today” seems all the more relevant for our time nearly 40 years later. In recent years, divisions have been increasing in …
I sit under the front window in my apartment. Sunlight filters in through a broken blind my landlord hasn’t seen fit to fix, and the rug is warm under my outstretched palm. It is October now, and gloom seems to coat the ground alongside the leaves that whisper-skitter across the pavement. The colors of fall …
“There’s an interplay,” says Kevin Blankinship, assistant professor of Arabic in the Department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages, “between what feels so different [about the past] and what is similar to us [in the present].” Although connecting the issues and challenges of 2020 to medieval Arabic poetry may seem a tall order for most, …
