opinions » oped
A Purple solution
By Boris Vassilev | Sept. 22, 2006, midnight | In Op/Ed »
Every year, 195 million trips are taken on our capital's overcrowded and under-budgeted Metro rail. The "Purple Line" also known as the Bi-County Connector, is a proposed extension of the Washington area's railways. Connecting key stations like Bethesda, Silver Spring and New Carrolton, this expansion would offer the average commuter a break from long traffic delays and offer a cheaper, cleaner alternative to driving.
A policy headed for disaster
By Poorva Singal | Sept. 16, 2006, midnight | In Op/Ed »
After last spring's test administration of the High School Assessments (HSA) for Algebra, Biology, Government and English, the U.S. Department of Education made the decision to allow Advanced Placement tests to be used as a substitute for the HSA so students would not have to be burdened with so much test taking for graduation. One flaw, however, mars the plan: students do not find out the results of their AP exams until after they would typically take the HSA in May.
Hezbollah needs to go
By Pia Nargundkar | Aug. 10, 2006, midnight | In Op/Ed »
While most Americans are lounging the summer heat away, going to baseball games and taking dives in the neighborhood pool, 6,000 miles away a conflict rages on in the Middle East. For the past three weeks, Israel and the militant Shiite group, Hezbollah, in southern Lebanon, have been engaged in fierce fighting. The daily headlines are grim: scores of innocent children killed in Lebanon, barrages of rocket fire raining on Israel. Hundreds of both Israeli and Lebanese civilians have been killed or wounded in the conflict, as well as four UN observers and a handful of foreign nationals. The United States needs to take a more active approach if we want to disarm a malicious terrorist organization and stop the horrific murder of Lebanese civilians.
The questions presented by the Padilla case
By Natasha Prados | April 19, 2006, midnight | In Op/Ed »
The Supreme Court opted on April 3 not to review the federal government's powers to detain U.S. citizens as enemy combatants, according to The Washington Post.
Teacher pensions: Solution still pending
By Isaac Arnsdorf | April 6, 2006, midnight | In Op/Ed »
For a state that prides itself on its schools, Maryland's pension plan is an embarrassment and an obstacle to attracting and retaining quality teachers. Maryland's teacher pension plan ranks 51st in the nation - dead last. Retired Maryland school employees receive just 38 percent of their peak salary, half as much as in neighboring Pennsylvania, according to the Maryland State Teachers Association (MSTA).
Fear-mongering in Congress
By Jordan Fein | April 6, 2006, midnight | In Op/Ed »
Members of Congress have once again proved that they are unable to differentiate between the country's best interest and their own.
Montgomery homeowners shouldn't like Ike
By Alex Hyder | March 30, 2006, midnight | In Op/Ed »
The warm weather that usually comes with spring has only just begun to assert itself, but the race for Montgomery County Executive seems to be growing hotter by the day, as could be seen in a debate held in Silver Spring last week between candidates Ike Leggett and Steve Silverman. Despite leaving many issues still unsettled, especially issues regarding mass transit and the purple line, both candidates left this early debate having thoroughly established their platforms when it comes to real estate and hopring and the warm weather that usually comes with it has only just begun to assert itselfme ownership.
Reckless abandonment
By Natasha Prados | March 15, 2006, midnight | In Op/Ed »
A depressed sophomore contemplating suicide who checked himself into a George Washington University Hospital was sent a letter by the University's administration stating that his "endangering behavior" could result in his suspension or expulsion unless he withdrew from school, according to a March 10 article published in The Washington Post. In the meantime, Jordan Nott, the student, was barred from the campus.
Silver Spring's own bridge to nowhere
By Alex Hyder | March 13, 2006, midnight | In Op/Ed »
It rises majestically from the Forest Glen Metro stop, flying high into the air, running parallel to Georgia avenue before soaring over the Beltway on- and off-ramps, ducking under the Beltway itself and making a landing next to what, in the mind of some bureaucrat, is a spot of vital importance to pedestrians: the parking lot of some town homes.
CPR: A new tool for teachers
By Ethan Kuhnhenn | March 9, 2006, midnight | In Op/Ed »
Two weeks ago, Maryland State Senators passed "Andrew's Law," a provision named for former Blair student Andrew Helgeson, that would require every Maryland high school to have an automatic external defillibator. State legislators have taken the first step to improve an inadequate environment for student health in schools but why stop at defibrillators? MCPS should make cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and First Aid training a requisite for all teachers at all levels of education in the county.
In want of women
By Natasha Prados | March 3, 2006, midnight | In Op/Ed »
In a country where women have been enslaved as recently as 1996, a woman has been elected president.
Students need better representation
By Adam Yalowitz | March 3, 2006, midnight | In Op/Ed »
While legislators engage adults about issues they think voters care about, they can be quick to leave students out of the democratic process and overlook their concerns. Although most students do not vote, they do represent a large portion of the population - but even in an area as politically active as Montgomery County, their views are rarely heard.
Letter grades leave students in the numbers game
By Jason Meer | March 2, 2006, midnight | In Op/Ed »
A student brings home a perfect report card. It is an ideal situation: Parents and child are happy, and MCPS is patting itself on the back for successfully educating another pupil. But, this situation also illustrates one of the main tools MCPS uses to maintain its reputation for stellar academics: grade inflation through letter grading.
Alito will shift the Supreme Court to extreme right
By Jordan Fein | March 2, 2006, midnight | In Op/Ed »
Court of Appeals Judge Samuel Alito, a staunch conservative, replaced moderate Supreme Court Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on Jan. 31. In his career as a judge, Alito's radical ideology has fueled an archaic, reactionary interpretation of the Constitution that he seems to value over the common good of the American people.
Censorship: Google's newest business strategy
By Lois Bangiolo | Feb. 23, 2006, midnight | In Op/Ed »
"In line with local laws and policies, parts of the result are not listed." Written in Chinese characters, this message appears across the bottom of a web page after a search. Unfortunately Google, a company that has prided itself on its accurate, unbiased web searches, has hypocritically decided that censorship is acceptable when there is money to be made.
Straight from the books and on the right track
By Alexis Egan | Feb. 2, 2006, midnight | In Op/Ed »
Gone are the "good old days" of our parents' youth when the movies that Hollywood made were actually good, original ideas, or at least did not focus entirely on sex and violence. Although most critics believe that the increasing presence of violence and sex in films is the biggest issue in the movie-making industry, the real problem is the lack of new ideas.
Immigration policy needs an overhaul
By Natasha Prados | Jan. 11, 2006, midnight | In Op/Ed »
In an attempt to limit overcrowding, a zoning ordinance passed Dec. 29 requires Manassas, Virginia residents to live only with immediate family members. After being widely criticized as discriminatory, the ordinance was suspended, according to a Jan. 5 article in The Washington Post. That such a law was passed in the first place is evidence of an emerging pattern of growing prejudice towards immigrants, a pattern perpetuated by current immigration policy.
On APs, philosophical disagreement
By Armin Rosen | Dec. 22, 2005, midnight | In Op/Ed »
He's been writing in support of Advanced Placement (AP) tests for over two decades, formulated a controversial and nationally respected ranking system for high schools based solely on the number of AP tests administered, declared APs the catalyst of a golden age in American education and said that APs will soon overtake the SAT as the standard measure of high school learning. But Washington Post education reporter Jay Mathews is no sellout. He's a utilitarian.
Two thumbs down
By Ethan Kuhnhenn | Dec. 21, 2005, midnight | In Op/Ed »
School Superintendent Jerry Weast snuck one by the Board of Education earlier this semester by imposing a regulation that prevents teachers from showing movies rated R and PG-13 to high school and middle school students. Between this and the "sex-ed video" debacle, Montgomery County Public Schools seem to be headed down a path in the wrong direction.
Pro/Con: The state of sportsmanship
By Ethan Kuhnhenn, Abe Schwadron | Dec. 20, 2005, midnight | In Op/Ed »
What ever happened to the golden days of professionalism in sports? Gone is the era when the NBA's Michael Jordan and Patrick Ewing were heroes to young athletes. In today's money-centered sporting world, kids have more bad role models than good role models to look up to.
Pro/Con: Academic eligibility requirements
By Phillip Allen, Josh Zipin | Dec. 12, 2005, midnight | In Op/Ed »
To participate in Montgomery County high school athletics, students must maintain a 2.0 grade point average. For some student-athletes this isn't a problem, but for others the academic requirements are a formidable hurdle. Some people argue that academics should not play a role in determining who gets to play sports and that the best athletes in a school should represent it in athletic competition, but others believe that school takes precedence. Students, parents and administrators all have an opinion on this contested topic. So the question is, are these academic restrictions justified?
It's a bird, it's a plane, it's...Christmas?
By Natasha Prados | Nov. 23, 2005, midnight | In Op/Ed »
Walking into the Giant mid-October, looking to purchase some Halloween candy for pre-Halloween taste testing (for the safety of the children, of course), I stopped short. Towering before me was not any sort of ghost, ghoul or goblin or even black and orange banners that might be expected around Halloween. There weren't even any turkeys, pilgrims or traditional Thanksgiving decorations. Instead, I found myself face-to-face with a towering inflatable Santa Claus snow globe.
Harry Potter, circa 2040
By Armin Rosen | Nov. 21, 2005, midnight | In Op/Ed »
It's impossible to say which elements of this bloated pop culture of ours will find traction in a future whose tastes we can only predict. No one can say for sure if Harry Potter will join Sherlock Holmes, Frodo and Dracula on the short-list of great British fictional characters, or if the works of J.K. Rowling and C.S. Lewis will be held in equal esteem. But this is a distinct possibility. It wouldn't surprise me either if future PhD theses explored everything from the septet's religious symbolism to its social and political allegory to its treatment of the teenage psyche. There hopefully won't be a lot of it, but there will be Harry Potter scholarship. One of these days.
Broken promises
By Bridget Egan | Nov. 18, 2005, midnight | In Op/Ed »
Sudan is a topic of controversy and horror - a country packed with more death and terror than a thousand scary movies. Why then do United Nations officials seem more scared by the concept of entering the country than the actual crimes being committed?
Libby's indictment: deserving yet unsatisfactory
By Payal Patnaik | Nov. 16, 2005, midnight | In Op/Ed »
Joseph Wilson, the CIA envoy sent to confirm the Africa claim in 2002, wrote an editorial to the "New York Times" about the Iraq-Niger deals being false. This attempt of righting the wrong caused more harm than good. Lewis Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff and national security advisor, leaked the Valerie Plame's identity as a CIA operative to several journalists. Libby sought to discredit Wilson believing his actions to be subversive, blurring his purpose, and ruining the career of his wife, Plame, by revealing her position at the CIA.
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