Opinion
Eating disorder awareness week
By
The Observer
· Thursday, Oct. 7, 2010
It is no secret that Notre Dame students are motivated and competitive and often strive for perfection.
Stay for the Alma Mater
By
The Observer
· Thursday, Oct. 7, 2010
Notre Dame upperclassmen, you've been receiving a lot of "commentary" regarding your fandom over the last few weeks from alumni and underclassmen. I've seen you stick up for yourself, and I understand where you are coming from. I know why you leave games early and have stopped cheering. This is my 7th year as a student here. Years 1 through 4 were 2001-05, meaning I saw teams that went 5-6, 10-3, 5-7 and 6-6 (including an appearance in the prestigious Insight Bowl). While I was lucky enough not to be a student during the 3-9 2007 season, I have seen two 6-6 records since I returned to school here in the fall of 2008. I understand disenchantment. This is my first letter to the Observer in my 7 years on this campus, and I want to let you all know one thing: stay for the alma mater.
Rationale
By
The Observer
· Thursday, Oct. 7, 2010
I left The Observer offices in the basement of South Dining Hall at 2:30 a.m. one morning this fall, and as I reached South Quad and its wonderful cell phone reception, I received a text from my girlfriend that, in a not-as-family-friendly way, asked "Why the heck do you do it? You're a pre-med. You don't want to be nor will you ever be a journalist."
A prayer worth knowing by heart
By
The Observer
· Thursday, Oct. 7, 2010
In the Catholic Church, today we celebrate the memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary. It's worth spending a little time today, then, reflecting on a devotion that is at the same time beloved, scoffed at, and … well, ignored … by Catholics and non-Catholics alike.
Vote the bums out
By
The Observer
· Thursday, Oct. 7, 2010
Remember, remember the fourth of November. Remember how the politicians in Washington ignored you time and time again. Remember the empty promises of economic recovery and job growth. Remember how they covered up the facts and forced a half-baked healthcare bill down your throat. Remember the bank bailouts and the rewards the Wall Street fat cats received from the federal government for crashing the economy. Remember the trillions of dollars added to the deficit in the last two years. Remember the bungled oil spill response. Remember the soldiers who have died fighting in Afghanistan. Remember the blatant encroachments on states' rights. Remember all your unemployed and struggling neighbors. Remember all the lies congressman and senators have peddled to you about their intentions. There are many grievances to remember this November as all of us (hopefully) go to the ballot box.
Gun control
By
The Observer
· Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2010
In Monday's Observer ("My cold dead hands", Oct.4), Mr. Kyle Retzloff writes that Nazi Germany's alleged confiscation of private weapons is proof that an armed citizenry can act as a check on tyranny. This is a claim one often hears from pro-gun commentators. The history of armed citizens in modern politics is indeed instructive, but not as Mr. Retzloff suggests.
Action in accordance with our principles
By
The Observer
· Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2010
In response to Sarah Furman's viewpoint in the Sept. 24 issue of The Observer about ethical investments ("A call for ethical investment"), I read some interesting and troublingly dismissive responses on The Observer's website. Some people have argued that the NLRB settlement closes the issue and that students who are raising concerns about HEI are drawing the matter out unnecessarily, or that the Notre Dame magazine article concerning Scott Malpass and his investment strategy is enough of an explanation of the University's "ethical investments." The article from the 2007-2008 winter issue states that the University investments are held to the standard of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and their investment principles. Drawing on this, the USCCB website states investors must seek "investment opportunities that meet both our financial needs and our social criteria…[specifically] 1) refusal to invest in companies whose products and/or policies are counter to the values of Catholic moral teaching or statements adopted by the Conference of bishops; 2) divesting from such companies." Also, the USCCB calls on the necessity of active corporate participation of investors in any case, but especially when the questions of ethical investments are being voiced "to influence the corporate culture and to shape corporate policies and decisions." In dialogue with the University, these specifications by the USCCB have not been carried out, or at least the University has not mentioned their efforts, if there have been any, which is suspect because it seems logical for the University to underscore these activities if the students are demanding evidence of ethical investment.
Hobbies
By
The Observer
· Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2010
Last week was a rough one for me. Like most of my fellow Domers, I had my first randomly placed three — test week of the semester with the added bonus of a nasty virus that left me bed ridden for most of the week.
You never really pray alone
By
The Observer
· Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2010
There is no such thing as "private" prayer. There is — and certainly should be — deeply personal prayer, but really no such thing as "private" prayer. All Christian prayer, if it is true to its name, is initiated by the promptings of the Holy Spirit received in Baptism, who prays in and through the hearts of the baptized who together are constituted as the Body of Christ, the Church. Two things are worth noting here: First, all prayer begins with God's initiative (it's graced — in the Tradition, the Holy Spirit is often referred to as "uncreated Grace"), and, second, the Church is constituted by God's action, not by mere human choice or conscious decision. Decision is obviously important, as the Gospels relate, in responding to Jesus, but it's also important to remember that the invitation comes first. All prayer then, personal or public, is done in communion with the Body of Christ, the Church, as the Spirit draws us in Christ to an ever-deeper communion with the Father.
It is about winning
By
The Observer
· Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2010
Recently an observant (read: pigheaded) freshman decided to let her thoughts regarding the senior class be known. With infallible logic such as, "Notre Dame Football" is not about the football!" I realized how blind I have been the last four years. I haven't been paying $245 each year to watch football, I've been donating that minor fee to socialize for four hours once a week.
Sweater weather
By
The Observer
· Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2010
While lounging beside the pool in the middle of July, autumn is viewed with longing. Being welcomed back to our gorgeous campus by our best friends consumes the minds of many Notre Dame students. We look forward to "sweater weather" with all the enthusiasm of our beloved cheerleaders.
Notre Dame's Coming Out Day
By
The Observer
· Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2010
As you may or may not know, National Coming Out Day 2010 is next Monday, Oct. 11. This is an internationally recognized day of civil-awareness that encourages discussion of GLBT issues. And recently, there has been much to discuss. (Just to name a few: Nationally, the recent disappointment in repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell, and on campus, AllianceND was again denied club status while the non-discrimination clause still excludes homosexuality.)
Go ahead and judge me
By
The Observer
· Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2010
Here is a cold, hard truth about college: everyone judges. People judge others while walking on the quad, while eating in the dining hall, while studying and while sitting in class. In fact, someone is probably judging you right now as you're sitting and reading this. Most of the time, snap judgments are based on petty, superficial things like what you're wearing, or a really short quote that someone overheard out of context. Now, a lot of the time, those snap judgments are right (isn't that the best when you finally meet someone who is exactly like you pictured in your mind?), but sometimes they're not. Obviously, we can't stop this from happening, as there is no way that you could truly get to know everyone that you come in contact with. It's just not possible. But the fact that people will always be making silent decisions about personality and character frightens some, and that causes them to act or dress differently than they normally would.
When The Breaks Are Beating The Boys ... '
By
The Observer
· Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2010
Look, upperclassmen, I understand. I know that I wasn't here for the 3-9 season; I know that I have not lived through the disappointment of the past three years from the student section. I don't know what, if anything, I could reasonably expect from you in terms of confidence in or enthusiasm for our football team. But that doesn't mean that anything less is expected of you in terms of being Notre Dame students.
Cloud Machines
By
The Observer
· Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2010
There is a cloud machine that rises up behind what was my one-room apartment this summer in Mannheim, Germany, a factory belching out fluffy whiteness into the blue expanse above. It doesn't rain much during the summer in the Rhine Valley, so one begins to question if the clouds whose only purpose is offering the occasional, passing shade onto a lazy Sunday nap along the river, really are clouds. Walking back home in the early afternoon, I would watch the wispy cotton puffs progress slowly past overhead and smile at the smokestack from which they came.
My cold dead hands
By
The Observer
· Monday, Oct. 4, 2010
Mr. Ryan Williams attempts to argue in his viewpoint entitled "A Safer World Without Guns" (Sept. 30) that we should have stricter gun control laws to eliminate the chances of shooting tragedies across the nation from happening. He claims that there is a causal relationship between taking automatic weapons away from the hands of citizens and a decline in gun violence. Quite simply, that is ridiculous. Removing any semblance of a threat posed to criminals by ordinary citizens will only make the problem worse by allowing the perpetrators to hold the most firepower. Outlawing automatic weapons will have little effect on the ability of criminals to obtain them on the black market. If they want a gun, they'll get it somehow. I want to have a proportionality of force equal to any criminal I may encounter.
If guns are outlawed...
By
The Observer
· Monday, Oct. 4, 2010
Dear Ryan Williams ("A Safer World Without Guns," Sept. 30),
Call for compassion
By
The Observer
· Monday, Oct. 4, 2010
What started as scattered Facebook statuses on my homepage has erupted into an international news story. Tyler Clementi, a boy from my high school and a freshman at Rutgers University, committed suicide on Sept. 22. Tyler jumped off the George Washington Bridge after his roommate and a friend of his roommate streamed a live video of him having a private encounter with another male, broadcasting the video to 150 followers on Twitter.
Trending
