It’s entirely possible that you’re reading this before November 4, 2008, but the likelihood is that you’re reading this after. Regardless, you will vote in an election sometime in the future, so the message is the same. The electoral system — nay, the whole political system — in the United States is broken.
An Engineer’s Dream
As a general rule, planning your class load for next semester is stressful. There are requirements to fill, time conflicts to worry about, and logging in at 10:00 pm with 1,000 other people (full disclosure: the author logs in at 9:30). With all of that said, you still have to avoid any class that starts at 8:00 AM and any class with a professor who says “uh” way too many times.
On Board the “Straight-Talk Express”
With just under a month to go before the election, the Straight Talk Express rolled through Bethlehem, PA on October 8th, making a campaign stop for a rally at Stabler Arena.
Misundereducated
Education plays a critical role in every nation’s development. Just as leaders today make decisions based upon their past education, the leaders of tomorrow will formulate their actions based on what they learn today. Our future depends on the education of today to produce a well-informed and educated generation.
A One-Party State
In the current state of affairs, the results of the presidential elections are essentially a shoe-in for Senator Barack Obama. Unless some significant and unforeseen news is reported, either severely negative to Senator Obama or highly positive to Senator McCain, Senator Barack Obama will win the United States Presidential election with a comfortable margin to spare.
Anticipating an Obamanation
A colleague of mine wrote last month about why he, as a Christian, feels obligated to vote for Barack Obama. To me, this notion is not only delusional but downright scary. I feel that I need to respond to this notion as well as list the almost countless other reasons Barack Obama would do great damage to this country. He is not even qualified to be President of this great nation.
Electing What: Where has the Ideology Gone?
“Here comes the orator! With his flood of words, and his drop of reason.” —Benjamin Franklin
G.K. Chesterton is perhaps the greatest forgotten intellectual from the early twentieth century. This is odd since the Brit was both friends and sparring partners with some of the giants of the era—men like George Bernard Shaw and H.G. Wells.
Democratic Intolerance
Traditionally, Democrats claim to support tolerance, but, from the looks of the mainstream media, can’t seem to stand the conservative viewpoint. Excluding Fox News, there are two conservative anchors on television: John Stossel of ABC and Glenn Beck of CNN Headline News.
Sexism and Sarah Palin
With the election season now in full swing and Sarah Palin still being assaulted in the media and even by the Women’s Center on Lehigh’s campus, I thought it would be time to set the record straight on just who Sarah Palin is and what she stands for. Hopefully, I will also put to rest some myths along the way…
Olda: A Rare Reluctant Leader
As August 20, 1968 turned into August 21, Czechoslovakia was overrun by Russian tanks, and the puppet Communist regime was reined in by the granddaddy of Communist states. The Prague Spring was over, and the reforms of Alexander Dubček, which President Gorbachev later copied for his famous perestroika and glasnost reforms that helped cause the collapse of the Soviet Union, were reversed…
In Defense of Elehightism
Does one’s partisan biases have root in their quasi-predestined role in higher education? That is to say, do Lehigh’s conservative students tend to accept the so-called social inequalities that Lehigh’s left-leaning students often cite within the institution itself?
Sanity Lost
Sometimes, convincing someone to cast their vote for you is quite challenging. I learned this in those intense middle school elections of simpler days now long past. If it weren’t for Sarah and her seemingly endless supply of Jolly Rancher lollipops things might be different…
BeTrayed
To impose or not to impose, that is the question. Whether it is more beneficial to let people decide to be responsible for their environment and surroundings or to force it upon them by taking drastic measures that affect the entire population directly…
A Festschrift for Eli
At 4:00 on a leafy-golden late October afternoon, a group of professors from Lehigh’s business college will gather for drinks and light refreshments to celebrate the career of Eli Schwartz, an economics professor at Lehigh from 1954 to 1991…
Save the Water; Kill the Whales
This is an important time, for the United States of America and Lehigh University alike. In fact, it is so important a time that I had difficulty deciding what topic to choose as the focal point of this issue’s article…
Words of Inaction
Election year politics always provide a tremendous amount of political banter on both sides. While following this year’s contest, I have read countless well-thought and articulate articles on the current political climate…
To Educate or Indoctrinate?
The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees every American the right to free speech. Yet this fundamental liberty is not preserved on Lehigh’s campus. Instead, political correctness has paved the way to restrictive speech codes that govern what can and cannot be said…
Whites, Blacks, and Voting Preferences
I was looking through the Wall Street Journal the other day when I saw the headline “Black Voters Fret Over Obama.” I wondered, when I saw the title, what black voters were ‘fretting over’, so I read on…
Volunteering For Victory
As the 2008 election season is under way, with the Democrat and Republican conventions just behind us and the elections just around the corner, it’s time for the last two frenzied months of campaigning…
Why I am Voting Obama
This was a tough call for me. I do like McCain — really. He’s a nice guy, I’m sure, but I can’t help but wonder if he is too confident he has the Christian vote simply because of his Republican status…
Climbing Mt. eHarmony
“On a scale from one to seven, to what degree do the following words apply to you? The first word is: Kind.”
“Is a one high or low?”
“One is low and seven is high…”
Reflecting on Roles
In my short time writing for this magazine, I have learned a lot about the Lehigh student body and faculty, and, from what I gather, Academia nationwide. My writings have touched on three sensitive subjects…
NObama
“I found solace in nursing a pervasive sense of grievance and animosity against my mother’s race,” states Senator Barack Obama in his book, Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance…
A Breath of Fresh Air
Recently, I had the pleasure of dining with two students who live or have lived in another country for a significant period of time; one in Pakistan, and the other in Ukraine. As we discussed the corruption that is rampant in the governments of third world countries…
Sticking to Our Guns
“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
This past weekend the College Republicans celebrated 2nd Amendment Day…
15 Minutes with Joe
Joe Sterrett is probably the most distinguished member of the Lehigh family, but you’d never know it from his unpretentious and accessible manner…nor, of course, from the location of his office – in the Lehigh Athletic Department…
A Hot Topic
Apocalypses have always been cool. It’s just a fact of life. Would Will Smith be as cool as he is without his many apocalyptic thrillers, such as “Independence Day,” “Men In Black,” and “I Am Legend?” I think not…
Doubts About Scouts
Since 1912, approximately 1.7 million Boy Scouts have earned the rank of Eagle Scout, the highest rank in the organization. According to the web site of Boy Scouts of America, this figure represents only 5 percent of all Boy Scouts, although the number of boys attaining the rank during my scouting career seems to have increased while the qualifications for the award and the extent to which those boys receiving the award have greatly diminished…
Perpetuating Bad Writing
Inside Higher Ed recently had an interesting article, written by Lindsay Waters, called “A Call for Slow Writing.” The article is an adaptation from a talk so, ironically, it is terribly written. However, the message it presents is important…
Ashcroft’s America
On April 24, former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft will visit Lehigh to give a talk entitled “Leadership in Challenging Times.” In preparation for his arrival, it is important to understand what qualifies him to speak on this topic and what defined his tenure in the Department of Justice…
It Could Be So Much Worse
“Thank God it’s Mother-day!” Leslie thought as she wandered past the ice-palace construction site, and down the spacious streets of Washington D.C. She was taking it slow today; she was still getting used to repressive heat of summer city life, having only moved here a couple months earlier in the spring month of Barbara…
A Few Good Men
Women’s roles can be a super-touchy topic, and conservatives and liberals alike rarely give a good defense of their positions. Conservatives who advocate for women to play a different role than men often come across as advocating the repression of women, while liberals seem to automatically assume that saying there is a difference…
Miss Leadership?
I’m here to present to you an issue, to facilitate a discussion, so I thought I’d try something a little different this time around. There is an age-old question, one that hasn’t really been looked at and addressed until now, and it is this: can a woman be put in a role of leadership? The answer is a resounding…
A Sexual Intercourse: New Positions
Sex is a topic we all think we know about. But how much do we actually know? Well, we know…
A Woman’s Role
Lehigh University was founded in 1864 as an all-male institution with the mission of molding immature high school boys…
Conservation of What?
Around lunchtime one day back in February I wandered into the Lower UC as I would any other day…
Democratic Rationale
I am now a registered Democrat. There is a sentence I thought I would never say. However, this year, with the GOP nomination already decided…
Putting Logic To Rest
Sam Wechsler, ‘08, is a soft-spoken person. You’d be surprised to learn that, at his command, is an organization that I have previously described as…
Sexually Transmitted Depression
Don’t have sex; you will get depressed, and you will die. Or you’re sure to contract an STD or two, and consequently die…
Lehigh Men, Women, and Vegetables
“Lehigh Men Are Vegetarians!” proclaimed the headline. It was in my early days as a Lehigh student, somewhere in the Paleozoic era, and the headline was for a letter to the editor in The Brown and White…
Glorifying Titillation
Valentine’s Day means that, for many colleges, sex will be front and center. Lehigh, like many colleges and universities across the country, had a full slate…
In Dependence Day
Fireworks, parties, pools, family and friends, a warm summer night, and beer: all of these combine to represent a holiday that truly expresses America’s greatness. July fourth, Independence Day, is a great holiday…
On Recycling
Recently, we have heard names such as Green Action, Green House, the Lehigh Environmental Advisory Group (LEAG), and the Environmental Coalition (ECo)…
Top Ten Sex Secrets to Drive You Wild
You’d think there would be an article like that in a Cosmopolitan magazine right? But nope, it’s here in the Patriot…
Alice in Blunderland
In a series of e-mail announcements sent to the university at-large, President Alice P. Gast has unveiled a series of councils and special interest groups, whose intentions stand to further progress for a more diverse, more ecologically conscious campus, a motive that Gast presented among her inaugural goals…
Hating America
When it came time to select a class schedule for my second-to-last semester at Lehigh, it became evident that I had not once in my four years here taken an American History course…
King Day Celebration
On Monday, January 21st, at 1:26 PM, I received an email in my Inbox “from” President Alice Gast, informing me of the University’s Martin Luther King, Jr. celebrations. Amongst the festivities were a website, the creation of a Council for Equity and Community, and a performance dubbed “Rap Sessions” brought to our attention by Calvin-John Smiley…
Immigration Reform & the A-Word
As a first-time voter in the upcoming presidential election, I have been following the race more than any past election, with a special interest in the issue of immigration reform…
Refrain from McCain
With the primaries now in full swing, a Republican frontrunner has finally emerged. This is at least true according to the mainstream media. His name is Senator John McCain. The media is fascinated with this man.
This is a Fundamental Difference Between Us…
Everyone who listened to the Presidential debates probably recognizes this phrase. Several times, both Obama and McCain used it in reference to issues on which they disagreed. Once or twice when McCain spoke, I saw a little glimmer of clarity on the real fundamental difference between the parties.