Seventeen lives were lost last Wednesday in a shooting at a high school in Parkdale, Florida. That day the Internet sent hundreds of thousands of prayers to the families of the victims. Along with the prayers, however, came passionate and grief-filled political statements, blaming the horrible event on guns. I was disgusted to see…
Colorado has become fairly infamous for school shootings. It was the home of perhaps the most infamous school shooting in America: Columbine High School. My high school was right down the road from Columbine, and while I am far too young to remember that shooting, I was unfortunate to experience one of my own. On…
John Adams once said: “There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.” George Washington agreed…
It’s important to stay abreast with politics and news, and so many people would agree. So why do so many of us seem so ignorant of what is going on in this country? It is one thing to have a personal philosophy from which you intentionally preclude yourself from politics and keeping up with…
We live in a serious world. There is as always, war, famine, death, disease, murder and other horrible things happening every day. Even our personal lives can be filled with a litany of is- sues and calamities that keep us with a scowl on our faces, and give us very little to laugh about. Couple…
When I was growing up, I was always told to be myself. Every single day, both my mother and my father told me to be myself. In fact, I think that the “be yourself” mantra is one that so many of my generation’s parents told them over and over. So why did so few people…
Clara Jurik’s senior seminar at Hope College packed a challenge. The challenge was to begin working towards a goal that was based on a student’s ideal future that can begin right away. “My goal is to lessen our ecological impact and of course trash is a big part of that. I decided to try and…
Monday mornings are quiet and peaceful for him. He sits in the Bultman Student Center with a cup of coffee calculating and balancing the week’s budget for the Student Activities Com- mittee, as well as completing assign- ments and tasks for his academically rigorous accounting major. He organizes and delegates re- sponsibilities every week to…
Spring Sweet is a shop owner whose store, literally and figuratively, reflects her name and personality. Spring has owned the store, Spring Sweet, for 6 years. The store was originally on 9th St., but as a Holland native, Spring always new that she wanted to end up on 8th St. When the owner of September's…
I am deeply disheartened. I grew up receiving all sorts of mixed messages from the Church, my peers and the whole world about who Jesus is and what He calls us to. Some people seemed to think it was about rules, about rights and wrongs. Some people seemed to think it was a race of…