Opinion: The college football system is a broken system
Connor Cable, Staff Writer
January 31, 2018
Another year, another college football championship with an SEC team on top of the podium. I am not here to discuss the merits of SEC football because we all know they are good. The problem lies in the fact that this year, there were two SEC teams in the four-team college football playoff, and they...
Opinion: YouTube star showcases suicide
Lisa Meskimen, Contributing Writer
January 27, 2018
At the beginning of 2018, the popular YouTuber Logan Paul posted a video blog (vlog) of himself encountering a dead body in Japan’s Aokigahara forest, also known as the Suicide Forest. Paul, with over 15 million subscribers to his name, is a 22-year-old man whose YouTube channel description reads...
A Goodbye Letter to Target
Kate Eckrote, Contributing Writer
January 20, 2018
Goodbye forever,, Target. It’s over. Done. You’ve given up on us, and I’m fine. Really, I’m not going to cry. Because you see, Target, I’m remembering things now. Without the diverting allure of your one-dollar section or hypnotic glare of your fluorescent lights, I can finally see cl...
Opinion: Is Greek life worth a life?
Lindsey Farni , Contributing Writer
December 22, 2017
Recently, a dark shadow has been cast over Greek communities since the death of Maxwell Gruver at Louisiana State University. Gruver died in a fraternity house on Sept.14 following a night of hazing. According to Louisiana-based newspaper “The Advocate, ” Gruver had been part of a fraternity ha...
Opinion: What should we do about gun violence?
Jabril Edmondson, Staff Writer
December 15, 2017
According to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been over 300 mass shootings in America in 2017 alone. A mass shooting is classified as a shooting where four or more people are killed or injured. These aren’t instances of happenstance, they are intentional and damaging. There is obviously an issue ...
Opinion: “It’s Okay to be White” posters displayed throughout the country
Kianna Lanier, Contributing Writer
December 3, 2017
When has it been unacceptable to be white? The white population in America benefits from better education, higher income, lower unemployment rates, lighter criminal sentencing and many other privileges compared to those of blacks and Hispanics in America. In light of recent attempts to highlight these ine...
Opinion: I studied race and gender in Mercer athletics for my research class, here’s what I found
Sophie Peel, Contributing Writer
December 1, 2017
As with all communities, the athletic world is a jumbled pool of personalities, ethnic identities, competing morals, races, ideologies and voices. This column does not aim to expose and scold the athletic community for its wrongdoings; the athletic community merely works as a vehicle to observe and pos...
Opinion: Why gender-neutral housing should be available
Aliyah Dorsey, Contributing Writer
November 8, 2017
A dorm is a student’s work space, most visited hangout and home away from home. However, for students who are trans and nonbinary, the dorm can also be a difficult place to live. Personally, I know several people who identify as genders other than male or female and some who don’t identify as ...
Opinion: Are movie theater prices getting too high?
Connor Cable, Staff Writer
November 6, 2017
The month of October has seen the worst box office returns in 10 years. The Hollywood Reporter states that ticket sales will just miss reaching $560 million. The last time ticket sales in October have not reached $600 million, or even $700 million in sales, was 2007. How could this be? Have ticket sales finally...
Opinion: Girl Scouts is the best for girls
Rylee Kirk, Advertising Manager
November 2, 2017
When people think of Girl Scouts, they think of cookies. Their stomach grumbles, thinking of the delicious mint-chocolate flavor of a Thin Mint on their tongue. A Samoas’ caramel coconut scent fills their nose, but they do not think of the girls and women empowered by those cookies. My mother for...
Opinion: Is the banning of books in public schools the right thing to do?
Connor Cable, Contributing Writer
October 26, 2017
Last week, the news broke that the Biloxi Public School System in Mississippi had decided to remove the classic American Novel, “To Kill A Mockingbird,” from its eighth grade curriculum. This is only the most recent case of a classic novel being banned from a school system; last year, Maya Angelou’s ...
Opinion: Crisis in Catalonia
Trevor Odom, Contributing Writer
October 19, 2017
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy summarized the crisis in Catalonia with, “There is no possible mediation between democratic law and disobedience or illegality.” For the past forty years, Catalonians have been engineering a break with Spain. First they advocated for and were granted more a...