Discrediting Derogatory Language Retarded (adj): delayed or held back in terms of progress, develop- ment, or accomplishment; SYNONYMS: slowed down, post-poned, hindered, detained gay (adj): 1. homosexual; 2. happily excited, merry, lighthearted faggot (n): sticks of wood, tied together, which are used as fuel for a fire So that’s what those words ACTUALLY mean. In case you had forgotten. I’m not a fan of the over-done politically correct movement. Words like mailman and history are fine by me; I’m not offended by the fact that “man” and “his” are a part of them. I’d argue it’s easier and more accurate to say “blind” rather than “visually challenged,” because, after all, everyone who wears glasses or contacts is visually challenged. What I DO take issue with is when people use the words retarded, faggot, and gay to mean something they don’t....
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Clarifying the Questions: Where was the Media? Being abroad last semester, I found it difficult to keep tabs on everything happening back at Tufts. Yet from what I’ve gathered from friends and a few clicks on the Daily and Roundtable web pages, it seems that pretty much everyone was confused by what exactly went on with Referenda 3 and 4. As last semester’s Public Editor, Shabazz Stuart, pointed out in his April 9th column, the media is the key link between the political class and the people whom they serve. He offered a wake-up call to campus media to use their weight to inform policy. Just as Tufts publications ought to reflect public opinion to policy makers, they ought also to disseminate, clarify, and investigate policy proposals. In order for democracy to work, people need to make informed decisions. At Tufts, people become informed by reading any one of our daily,...
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Abstain Means Abstain When you abstain from eating meat, you don't eat meat. When you abstain from working, you don't work. And when you abstain from voting, you don't vote. But in my time observing student government at Tufts, I have encountered an alternate definition, where abstaining from voting is called a vote. And I don't understand it. The trouble stems from referenda, which either can force the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate to take action or can change student government's constitution. Either way, it is important, which is why it is up the student body to decide whether a referendum should pass. A majority vote in favor passes a resolution. By itself, this could lead to votes held in secret, where only supporters know when to vote. To deter this, the TCU Constitution contains the minimum-vote clause, mandating that at least a quarter of the...
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Hazards in the Community Boston likes to think of itself as a progressive, tolerant city that values education, excellent health care and social justice. To a certain extent, this is true. Bostonians may hold seemingly compatible beliefs, yet when these values collide, as they have over Boston Universityís construction of a BioSafety Level 4 laboratory, it becomes evident that Boston is not quite the city on the hill many believe it to be. B.U.ís new BioLab in Roxbury is the latest instance of a morality clash between higher education and the desire for social justice of a community consistently trampled upon by the powers that be. In September 2003, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease selected Boston as the site of a new research complex containing Biosafety Level 2, 3 and 4 laboratories. The lab is designed to hold dangerous pathogens...
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We Could Have Had Compromise The death of Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) immediately turned the nation’s collective thought to the idea of the “Kennedy legacy.” The concept of such a legacy is, at the very least, a misnomer. First of all, there are still Kennedys involved in public life. More to the point, though, when the “Kennedy legacy” is discussed, it is, more than anything, a masked call for national introspection to raise awareness of the challenges that we face, and an examination of the sort of leadership and solutions we will need to meet them. When that conversation arises, we often do as one of the Kennedy titans would have. Sen. Kennedy’s death called us once more to look to that legacy for inspiration, but Massachusetts political leadership took the easy way out. In 2004, the General Court amended the standing Senate vacancy law to remove the...
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