Opinions

Socks with sandals? Heresy!

Many people around campus, even some of my closest friends, commit what I consider a moral injustice. I must come forward and testify to those ignorant to these crimes committed, and to those who feign ignorance. These people offend by either trying to be unique or by acting apathetic. Nonetheless, it offends me that some wear their sandals with socks. I hear arguments like, "It is comfortable," or "it’s cold." Flip flops by themselves are rather comfortable by themselves. I don’t need to wear socks to be comfortable in sandals. I find it more comfortable to wear flip flops without socks. I cannot see how wearing socks with sandals could be more comfortable than wearing sandals alone.

The penny theory

Have you ever wondered why sometimes you get angry and explode over a seemingly insignificant thing? Or perhaps you don’t explode, but you find yourself getting depressed for no reason? This is something I’ve thought about for a long time. I wondered why most of the time when my young son would spill his milk, I would simply count it as an accident and clean up the mess. But sometimes the same child and the same spilled milk would have me screaming or crying. I’ve developed a theory to explain this phenomenon. I call it my penny theory. According to my theory, each of us has a tolerance bank containing a certain amount of pennies. Whenever problems arise, like the spilled milk, we simply take the needed pennies from our tolerance bank in order to emotionally pay for the situation.

Do they know enough to do their jobs?

Recently I sent an email to Alexandria Sutherland, secretary of the SA executive council, asking why the minutes for the SA executive council meetings are no longer distributed. In her reply she informed me that she would consult the SA president to figure how they could "get them circulating once again." I was perplexed, and here’s why: The Student Association is the entire student body, all the students that come to this University and pay their dues. We’re misinformed when we call the people we elect the SA. The people elected—president, vice president, yearbook editor, social vice president, etc.—are not the SA, but the executive council. They are elected by us to run our student government, and to represent our SA at other Adventist campuses.

Will you fight?

I fought in a war today, and the funny thing is that nobody knows. You’re sitting on a battlefield where I have fought, bled, triumphed, and been defeated. But the thought that’s even crazier than the fact that you can’t see my scars is the fact that you’re in the same war and may not even know it. We go about our daily lives and get so caught up in the trappings. We stress about homework, grades, paychecks, clothes and accessories. We walk around campus wondering what others may be thinking about us, or if the heroes in our favorite TV show have completed their missions. All the while we are blind to the carnage that surrounds us even as we walk to our classes on a sunny day.

What we don't know can hurt us

The other day I received an e-mail from “Announce-L” and I noticed that it was just one in about eight other e-mails there from the University. I perused the subjects of each electronic message and noticed that only three of them were of interest to me. I deleted the other five. This made me think about how little many students know about events planned on campus. Many students and faculty have trouble knowing what events are going on during the week and/or the weekend. In a conversation I had with Senior PR & Advertising Major Kelly Brown, she mentioned that she thinks the problem has to do with the advertising used—or not used—on campus. She recommended that signs be placed in really obvious places of high-student traffic.

Extra credit

Dr. Glen Robinson

I can’t help myself. I’m excited about the presidential election this year. Probably the biggest reason I am is because there’s a good chance we’re going to see history happen. Two of the candidates have the potential to break down barriers if either of them is elected: one, the racial barrier to the presidency; the other, the gender barrier. So I was a little disappointed in my Interpersonal Communication class last week when most of the students weren’t able to correctly answer the extra-credit question: "Who are the two winners of the New Hampshire primary?" Many thought Obama had won, and I wonder if that was simply because they were familiar with his name.

How far is too far?

Just last week I had a friend call me needing comfort and advice. It was late and she had just got back to her room after spending several hours with her boyfriend. I could hear the strain in her voice and asked her what had happened. At first she claimed that everything was fine, but we both knew she was lying. She said, "I don’t know what’s wrong with me…but my heart is aching. My stomach is queasy. I just feel empty. I don’t understand! It’s not like we had sex!" she said exasperatedly into the phone, almost in tears. "Why should I feel like this?"

Everybody struggles

While participating in a planning session discussing ideas for stories in the newspaper, the topic of moral issues surfaced. Our newspaper has previously not carried pieces that discuss issues such as drugs, alcohol, or sex. They are dangerous topics, especially dangerous for us here at SWAU because we are a Seventh-day Adventist school, and as such must always keep in mind that we are constantly representing our religion. As representatives it is important that we are good role models, always presenting Christ to those around us. I know and understand this and the reasoning behind our previous lack of attention in these types of areas. However, I strongly believe that as a school newspaper it is our job to create a safe forum for our readers (the students especially) in which all types of issues can be addressed. If there is an issue that is relevant and of interest to you, we want to give you information on it. My goal is to make those who are battling these types of issues realize that they are not the only Christians struggling. God does not promise us that we will not struggle against sin and temptation just because we are Seventh-day Adventists.

Be real, be open

Dr. Glen Robinson

Back in the olden days before I became a teacher here at SWAU, I was co-editor of a magazine called ParentTalk. My partner and I, in the process of setting up the magazine, decided that rather than talking about what parents should be doing (which they were already hearing from numerous sources), we wanted to address where parents already were, and help them with real-life issues that they faced daily. One example of how the magazine helped was the video review section that listed a variety of PG and PG-13 videos that had recently come into the market. Rather than passing judgment and telling parents their family should or shouldn’t see a particular video, we simply listed what the video was about, whether kids would want to watch it, rating, sex/nudity if any, drugs/alcohol if any, violence/scariness, profanity and mature themes. We then left it up to the reader to decide if the video was appropriate for their family. We recognized that Adventist parents were already renting these videos. We saw our job as simply providing them with information that would help them make intelligent choices.

Registration is getting better

This year’s registration process was far better than last year. I took advantage of the online registration and it really paid off. I also noticed that there was a lot more people there to help me every step of the way. It was really comforting when you raised your hand with a question and someone was there to answer right away. Being that I had most of my things done when I got there, it was a breeze. Compared to last year, registration has improved by: 1) Having more people there to help. 2) Emphasizing the need to register online.