Opinion

The Observer cover curse

In addition to the posters, flags and signs that are covering up the cinder block walls of my room in Keenan, the inside wall near my door also sports six of The Observer's Irish Insider cover pages from throughout this season. Over the weekend, a friend and I noticed that each of these cover athletes has experienced a considerable setback this year. DayneCrist and Armando Allen have suffered season-ending injuries. Unless the Irish can pull out victories in two of their final three games and become bowl eligible, Ian Williams and TheoRiddick are unlikely to return. Carlo Calabrese missed the Tulsa game with a hamstring injury. The most recent cover features David Ruffer with the headline, "From Walk-On to Starter to Sure Thing." The senior kicker is having a great season, but many are wondering why he did not get a chance to prove so in the final minute on Saturday.

Honoring Declan

You want to do something significant to memorialize Declan Sullivan? Don't think about doing something for videographers. Rest assured, new regulations will protect them. Instead, do something for those he cared about but who are still quite unprotected: football players. Evidence is growing that not only professional but college and high school players are experiencing cognitive and emotional harm as a result of head injuries, even when these fall short of a concussion. For example, a recent Purdue study of 21 Indiana high school football players published in the Journal of Neurotoma showed that eight suffered significant cognitive and neurological changes after a season of football even though only four of them had suffered a concussion.

We will win more

The Giants won the World Series on Monday night. We will win more.

Missed opportunities

I saw and heard President Jenkins' prayer for Declan Sullivan at the start of the Tulsa game on TV from my home in northwest Michigan. However presumptuous of me to improve on his prayer, I nonetheless wish I had heard Father Jenkins speak a final paragraph something like this:

Where is the accountability?

Dear Editors:

Tis the season

The other day, when my roommate and I were shopping for Halloween costume accessories, we stumbled across Christmas decorations in the third aisle of Michael's. While most would argue that late October is too early to begin celebrating the Christmas season, we were both elated and immediately decided to purchase a "Happy Holidays" scented candle and gold colored plastic reindeer for our common room.

Record doesn't lie

Joe Donnelly the legislator is a lot different than Joe Donnelly the campaigner. His record contradicts what he is campaigning on. He wants you to think he has supported policies that have created jobs, is fiscally prudent, and is independent, but his record points starkly in the other direction.

Spirit alive despite finger pointing

In the midst of investigations and allegations and finger-pointing and blame, the Notre Dame family gathered at Sacred Heart Church in a very real demonstration of what Notre Dame is all about.

Why you should vote for Donnelly

Joe Donnelly is the Democratic congressman of the 2nd district of Indiana that includes Notre Dame, South Bend, Elkhart and surrounding rural areas. He is a proud Catholic and a "double domer," with an undergraduate and law degree from Notre Dame.

Pigeons

Over Fall Break I was lucky enough to participate in one the Center for Social Concerns Appalachia Seminar's in New River Gorge National River, West Virginia. After the daily work my Appalachia family and I would tuck in to a homemade dinner, a crackling fire and maybe some s'mores. One night we decided to have a sleepover in the dining hall of the folk center we were staying at, laying our mattresses out side by side. Before we went to bed we decided to go around the room, telling everyone our greatest fears. For the most part, none were out of the ordinary — one girl was afraid of snakes, a boy was afraid of spiders, and another terrified of enclosed spaces. My fear, however, is a little more out of the ordinary — I am terrified of birds, specifically seagulls and pigeons.

ND community unites for Declan

I did not know Declan Sullivan.

Workplace accountability

As the mother of a son who works in videography, I'm personally saddened by the recent death of videographer Declan Sullivan at Notre Dame. This hits close to home because our own son also has videotaped from a scissor lift in windy conditions.

Thank you, Declan

Thank you Declan Sullivan

I have, from time to time, lost faith in my Notre Dame community. I have loved this school for my entire life, so take the former statement as all the more profound. I have felt that our campus is divided against itself in eighty different ways. I have felt that our campus is at war with itself. I have felt that the people on this campus care more about the lack of success that plagues our football team than they do about issues of humanity that affect the world every day. I feel that we are slowly slipping away from the ideals that Notre Dame was built upon, survived on, and currently promotes as the true spirit of our student body.

Lay off

In response to the recent opinions in the viewpoint section, articles such as "Celebrate Seniors" (Oct. 26) and "Absence of toughness"(Oct. 26) are unfair to both our football program and the athletic department. I believe that it is obnoxious that one fan can possibly have a letter published about how he should "storm the field," after a loss. As an athlete here at Notre Dame and on a competitive team (fencing) that realistically can win a national title every year, the last thing I would want to see in my campus newspaper is an article by a fellow student which would celebrate our loss for a national title. Letters like this are not motivational, but rather insulting to the program and won't change anything.

Let's hear it for the underdogs

I couldn't help but overhear two of my colleagues commiserating the other day about the miserable state of this year's World Series. Perhaps they miss the presence of their own beloved Phillies and Red Sox, or possibly they feel genuine concern for the financial straits they have predicted for FOX, stuck with two such underwhelming potential champions. And maybe their forecast of doom will prove correct – unless you're from San Francisco, or you're one of the few people in Texas who has realized they have a baseball team, weren't you hoping for a series played by big-name players from big-name teams?

A new era of slavery

The other day, a friend of mine brought up the fact he wouldn't mind paying 50 percent of what he made in taxes. Take a minute to think about that. That would mean that half of your working life would be as a virtual slave to the government. For the average person that would be 15-20 years of bondage where you worked long hours at your job without receiving your rightful pay. Sure, you get to choose where you work, but that is like trying to differentiate the slave that works in the house and the one that works in the field. Even a third of your income today going to the government makes you a part time slave. When you think about it in those terms, the fact that you will have to work twice as hard to get where you want to be by the time you retire is unbelievable. Well surely we are getting something for that money, and yes, we are — the greatest military in the world, a well established highway network and a mostly fair system of law to name a few — but we are increasingly getting stuff that a lot of us don't need from the government.

Looking for good role models

The other day I was reading in the bathroom, as I normally do when nature calls. The book I had (hastily) selected for my time of need was an English translation of "Cyrano de Bergerac." For those not in the know: Cyrano is an unusually eloquent man who also bears the unfortunate cross of a longer-than-average nose, rendering him unattractive to women. He is in love with his cousin Roxanne, but she prefers the handsome Christian, but Christian is really dumb, so Cyrano nobly decides to help Christian seduce Roxanne by putting words in his mouth. Christian dies in battle before he and Roxanne can consummate their marriage, and Cyrano nobly hides his role in the seduction from Roxanne until he is on his deathbed.

Not how I roll

When Dayne Crist failed to run the ball into the end zone on Notre Dame's first drive Saturday against Navy, the die-hard Irish faithful sitting around me nearly coughed up their gourmet California Rolls in disgust.

Of the people, by the people and for the people

Dear Ryan Williams,