Above the influence or avoiding the issues?

It’s not that I’d like being bombarded with the truth as I sit and try to let my brain be mushed by reality television, but creating a straw bully out of tobacco or marijuana isn’t only laughable but detrimental in the sense that it draws away from larger issues.

The first step to affordable healthcare

It is obvious that America’s healthcare system is in the dumps, yet President Obama stresses that every citizen deserves affordable healthcare. If he is really serious about making healthcare affordable, then all he needs to do to start fixing the problem is to take one easy step.

Cal Poly is too harsh on skateboarders

It is not news that skateboarders attract trouble wherever they choose to get up on the board. They instantly become targets for harassment from law enforcement officials upholding an ever-growing list of regulations.

Use of force needed to stop modern day piracy

How far have we come as a human race if we still can’t stop pirates? Of course, these aren’t your stereotypical silver screen pirates, but weren’t we having problems with piracy 200 years ago?

Ignoring rules may give green light to other nations

It’s a well-known adage that rules are made to be broken. Although there is some truth to that statement, it stops well short of its inevitable ending: the consequence.

Hypothetical husband, I’m not giving up my name

I didn’t practice my signature in the margins of my notebooks for nothing. If I get married, my husband will have to deal with the fact that I am and always will be Giana Magnoli. My reasons for keeping my birth name stem from individual motives.

An simple act of kindness

On Wednesday, as I was sitting down to enjoy a quick lunch in the atrium of the Avenue, a black bird flew straight into the tall glass pane right next to my table. It stuck the glass with a loud thud and fell straight to the ground.

Forest clear-cutting column very misleading

The column that was recently printed about forest clear-cutting may have been misleading to many of your readers. First: Correct, Canada is a major supplier of lumber to the United States.

Living by Bible’s word is easier said than done

Andrew, you wrote a letter claiming that “The Bible, God’s word, is not some trend like Vans slip-ons; it is immutable.” If that is unfailingly true, I hope you intend to follow all of the rules. I believe there are…

The Green Spot: Save a napkin, save a tree

Consider that 20,000 Cal Poly students using at least two napkins a day results in almost 15 million napkins a year. With a standard 5-by-5 napkin, you could make a paper trail from downtown San Luis Obispo to Denver, Colorado.

Capitalists are not the root of all evil

In an era that is beginning to define itself as so decidedly anti-business, there’s more of a need than ever to re-examine the very principles of the economic system we live in.