Students should remember soldiers
I was recently reading this month’s casualties list on icasualties.org and thinking about how few people take the time to read about the young men and women who gave their lives for their country.
The current wars are far away from us physically and mentally; it is not like previous wars. There are no massive parades when those serving return or large scale memorials for those who gave all. We are not rationing sugar or gas to fight the current wars. The North Wind does not list deaths or even mention the wars in most printings. We are living through a war right now, two actually, wars that have taken the lives of hundreds of soldiers this year alone. Most people will encounter veterans on a daily basis without knowing or considering it.
We should appreciate the sacrifices and hard work that today’s military is doing on a daily basis, not just on Veteran’s and Memorial Days. Thousands of soldiers have spent this holiday season away from family and friends, while NMU students were visiting with their friends and playing beer pong.
The current wars may not directly affect most civilians, but that does not decrease the significance of their work and sacrifices.
S.A. Smith
senior, sociology
Change isn’t going to happen by not voting
In response to the opinion article by Brandon Lee in the Dec. 2 edition, “Obama did not make the nation any better,” I felt compelled to write. Many of Lee’s arguments are fairly sound (or at least not pulled out of thin air).
However, I felt that he has no right to complain about the state of our nations as a “corporate state of war.”
In fact, people like Lee are the very reason the “corporate state of war” exists. Change does not occur on its own. I will not deny that the Obama administration did not accomplish everything it set out to do. Which administration ever has?
If we want change, it certainly isn’t going to happen by not voting. Perhaps instead of bashing the way our political system runs and saying change is “unlikely,” and that being anarchist is the way to go, action can instead be encouraged.
Then maybe someday our generation can clean house and get politicians in Congress, the Court and the White House, who really will act for and protect its people, and not itself.
We can turn this country from oligarchy back into democracy, but not by sitting on our butts.
Elisabeth Backer
senior, forensic biochemistry
