In Defense of NUPD
It’s been a week since Northeastern University Police Department (NUPD) announced it would deploy semi-automatic rifles in campus police vehicles during “high-level threats.” Condemnations of the decision have been strong, if expected. Trevor Noah compared Northeastern to prison, which, if you lived in IV freshman year, isn’t completely inaccurate. Northeastern’s ability to make blindly controversial […]
Let Them Eat Hierarchy
To progressives and conservatives alike, the meteoric rise of Donald Trump in the wake of the Tea Party movement has been surprising, to say the least. This is a man who was once a registered Democrat, who supported universal healthcare and access to late-term abortions, opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and who today opposes […]
Right to Life: 3 Dead, 9 Injured
A crazed intruder bearing a firearm enters a professional medical establishment one early Friday morning. While his purpose remains undeclared, he proceeds by terrorizing employees, frightening innocent bystanders, and killing as many patrons as possible. He storms the clinic’s entrance with a barrel gun in hand, opening fire on the establishment, its patients, and the […]
And Now, This: How John Oliver Is Changing the Television Landscape
An important moment happened on a recent episode of Last Week Tonight With John Oliver. Let me back up a bit. The first time I saw John Oliver on television playing an obnoxious, possibly alcoholic professor in Community, I hardly thought that a few years later he would have a weekly late night show featuring […]
#WAKEUPWORLD and Showing Solidarity
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” – Martin Luther King, Jr. Early last week, I was lucky enough to witness and participate in #WAKEUPWORLD, a Boston march in solidarity with students of color all over the country protesting institutionalized discrimination within schools and universities. Representatives of 17 schools, including Northeastern, walked through Boston […]
Mizzou Protests and the Misguided Reactionaries of The Atlantic
Over the last four months, The Atlantic magazine has published a slew of articles lambasting college students for their political oversensitivity. Caitlin Flanagan states, “today’s college kids can’t seem to take a joke.” Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt claim trigger warnings and protests against microaggressions exacerbate mental health problems. Conor Friedersdorf questions the vitriol of […]
The Invisible Man Who Won’t Disappear
At this point in Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign, it is no longer a secret to anyone paying attention that the Vermont senator is an immensely popular figure in American politics. On October 3, at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, Sanders attracted a max-capacity crowd of over 20,000 people.[1] It was his third most popular […]
Thoughts and Prayers
Since the World Trade Center attacks on 9/11, the federal government has expended incredible amounts of time, energy and capital on the image of American protection from foreign terrorism. The nation watched on live television as the Twin Towers caught fire and fell to the ground in New York City, and the Bush administration wasted […]
War of the Words
Almost thirty years ago to this day, Tipper Gore, wife of then-senator Al Gore, met with three other wives of prominent politicians to discuss a very serious issue: children were in mortal danger from the insidious threat of explicit lyrics. After hearing her daughter listening to Prince’s “Darling Nikki,” which contains references to sex and […]
When O’Reilly Attacks
On Tuesday, Bill O’Reilly took down another group of pesky liberals with his patented combination of condescension and gross misrepresentation. But this time his target was…Northeastern? Yes, our beloved school just got torched on the O’Reilly Factor for the following quote, which appears in an RA training pamphlet: “In order to have the experience of […]