Perspectives

"Look out for the redhead sophomore Joelle Takahashi said as we boarded the train for our weekly trip from Lausanne to Moudon, a half-hour ride.  He looks adorable but he's the biggest trouble maker of them all.""Excellent I thought. This was only my second time volunteering at the Moudon refugee facility in Switzerland, and the next two hours sounded like... a challenge, … [Read more...] about Mentoring Swiss youth imparts meaning

The fact that our nation devotes the first day in April to pranks and jokes suggests the importance of humor in our society. But what exactly is American humor? It would be nice to describe it as intelligent and witty but fastidious channel-changing proves otherwise as shows like "Jerry Springer "Jersey Shore" and "Jackass" appeal to our less-refined sense of … [Read more...] about Staff Editorial: Bring a classy dose of humor to this April Fools' Day

Health care reform has passed. For all the uncertainty about reform— only time will tell if it succeeds at containing costs and improving quality— it is justified by the direness of the country's challenges in health care. Perhaps no state has as much to gain as California whose woes are a particularly astonishing depiction of all that has gone awry in American … [Read more...] about Health reform brings hope to Californians

In our society of constant visual and auditory stimulation a disturbing thing has happened to the typical media of communication. Words images— they seem to lose their meanings the more we hear or see them the stronger or more startling they are instead of gaining importance and poignancy.We are bombarded by news of disasters misfortunes and injustices on a daily basis. … [Read more...] about Eyes reveal story behind injustices

This most recent decennial census is asking some questions that go beyond the constitutional mandate of counting the country's population. Some people are taking offense as to the nature and wording of several questions on the form but even more puzzling is why they were deemed necessary to appear in the first place. Yet these facts may even be secondary considering that our … [Read more...] about Census questions discriminate offend