Collegiate career truly preparation for life
April 23, 2013
There is something infinitely crueler, yet infinitely more rewarding, about the mad rush of the final week of school and exam week in the spring than the fall. With the return of warm weather and the siren call of the pool, the motivation required to finish everything is ridiculous. But ...
Praise only extraordinary athletes
April 16, 2013
Where have all the sports heroes gone? I found myself asking this question several times in recent weeks, prompted by the release of the movie "42" this weekend. As a student of U.S. history and a recovering baseball addict that still enjoys quiet Sunday afternoons at the ballpark with ...
Arts and sciences education holds value
April 09, 2013
As graduation quickly approaches (one month!), I’ve found myself thinking increasingly more about the value of my education, rather than focusing on more productive and immediate matters such as finishing a pesky thesis or beginning to work on any one of the numerous assignments I must finish before reaching ...
Fear, ignorance plague UT
April 02, 2013
I wanted to write about my anger regarding the recent "Sex Week" "scandal." I wanted to be angry at UT's administration for caring more about the opinions of a few state legislators than the desires of thousands of students that they are paid to theoretically protect. I wanted to ...
Students experience spring fever
March 19, 2013
The weather's getting warmer, and although Tennessee has as of now managed to avoid the string of apocalyptic winter storms of the past few months (seriously, it seemed like there was a new one every week), even a winter-lover such as myself can eagerly dream of long days spent ...
'Trickle-down' economics betrays equality
March 12, 2013
The word "oligarchy" is unpleasant, often used to describe a much darker time in Western civilization's history. However, surely in 21st century American we have escaped this pattern of economic exploitation and domination, haven't we?
After all, our country was founded on equal opportunity and the belief that ...
Generalizations take harsh toll
March 05, 2013
We live in a world of generalizations, of the twenty four hour news cycle, the catchy sound bite, the increasing impatience of everyone connected to the global information superhighway. With the entirety of human knowledge at our fingertips, everything is instantaneous and we risk being trampled and left behind if ...
Minimum wage set too low
February 26, 2013
I vividly remember the first job I ever worked, as well as the first paycheck I received at $6.15 an hour, and how excited I was that I was making more than my other friends working minimum wage jobs at $5.25 an hour. After having worked in restaurants ...
Bold steps necessary to fight poverty
February 19, 2013
Perhaps more than any other time in human history, we are approaching a remarkable age of potential human achievement — if we could only eliminate our contemptuous self-importance and our self-righteous differences. The past century has seen a stunning explosion of technological progression. In a little over sixty years humanity went ...
HOPE credit hour limitations harmful to education
February 12, 2013
As a student who has had a large portion of my education paid for by the Tennessee Lottery Scholarship, more commonly known as the HOPE Scholarship, the importance of the HOPE for thousands of Tennessee students is not lost on me. Even more fortuitously, I have managed to use the ...
Super Bowl unique to American culture
February 05, 2013
I've determined that the Super Bowl is one of the most fascinating displays of American society that we have ever created. The combination of continual media coverage, consumerism, the elevation of athletes to privileged status and the always popular "defying the odds" story that Americans love, all define important ...
Reverse culture shock poses challenge
January 29, 2013
A couple weekends ago, I saw Kathryn Bigelow's "Zero Dark Thirty." Besides being an incredibly well made and tense film, it was an intriguing portrayal of one of the more important moments of recent American history. I was not in the United States when the news of Osama Bin ...
Reasonable discussion on guns needed
January 22, 2013
Can you imagine if the fervor and dedication with which people defend their Second Amendment rights were applied to all our other rights? If people cared as much about the life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness of all citizens as they did about maintaining their arsenal of weaponry? If people ...
Redefining masculinity for modern age
January 15, 2013
There are few advertising techniques more effective than appealing to the "disappearing" masculinity of the American male. Pissed off because your girlfriend made you go watch "Les Mis" instead of letting you watch the football game? Grab a Dr. Pepper 10 next time and tell her what the deal is ...
Revisit past to gain better future
December 04, 2012
Last weekend, I had the opportunity to revive part of my childhood in Chattanooga, in the process remembering some of my formative experiences as a member of the Chattanooga Boys Choir. Nine years of my life were devoted to this organization, an all-boys choir that has been in existence since ...
