Where’s the respect?

DAVID WHITESOCK — It is no secret that many college students lack a level of decorum or even respect for other people around them. Tonight, that lack of respect was center stage, and as a result I was embarrassed to be considered a USD student with those I shared a classroom.

Following a presentation by Dr. Patrick Hauer (Physical Therapy) in Dr. John Thomas’ IdEA 303 (Intro to Global Health) class, Dr. Thomas handed out an in-class assignment to be completed by our small groups. The time was 8:30 and the class was restless and wanted out. But, Dr. Thomas began to tell a story which directly related to the content of Dr. Hauer’s presentation on personal health. Dr. Thomas struggled to tell his class that he just returned from the funeral of his nephew who died at the age of 35 due to heart failure. His nephew was overweight and smoked. Dr. Thomas was visible shaken while telling the class this very personal story which was more than relevant to the topic at hand.

However, the large majority of students in the class talked well above a whisper trying to get the in-class assignment complete so they could continue on with their narcissistic lives. Here was a man trying to inject a dose of reality and his students not only disrespected him and his nephew, but humanity as a whole. Sad and embarrassing.

I will be sending Dr. Thomas a personal email apologizing for my [cough] colleagues and posting an admonishment on WEB CT. They should all be ashamed of themselves!

Stop bitching about the cold and snow…

DAVID WHITESOCK — Seriously folks, this is South Dakota. It’s not like we’re living in Texas or something. As you should know by now, between the months of November and April, it is what we around here like to call WINTER. January is doing what January likes to do… be cold. Actually, not so much cold, but bone chilling, teeth chattering, make you squeal like a girl cold.

Stop bitching already; this is what the weather is supposed to be like. Toughen up or shut up.

Also, it would help if you actually wore more than a freaking HOODIE! Get some mittens and a knit hat, put them on and head over to the Civ and pick up a parka as well, and stop complaining that it is so cold.

Welcome Inquiring Minds

DAVID WHITESOCK — Let me (as the editor of this great opinion department) welcome all of you to our shiny (not so new) blog. As you can see, Kelsey Collier-Wise has already added her two cents as she will be adding posts from her own personal blog. I may do the same from time to time (shameless link). Mostly, this space will be a place for the opinion writers to opine on matters which don’t make it to the paper or to the website — which will feature a new column each day through the week!

That is all for now. Subscribe to the blog feed and come back often.

Dirty Tricks Don’t Help Anyone

KELSEY COLLIER-WISE — Crossposted to DakotaWomen.

While Hillary isn’t my #1 candidate, I really do want to like her. A lot of friends and people I respect are Hillary fans and I want to understand what they see in her. But when she pulls crap like this, it’s really difficult for me. If she wants to point out the differences between her positions and Obama’s, that’s fine. But there is no question that in this case, she (or someone working on her behalf) purposely distorted his record for political gain. The local Planned Parenthood has explicitly said they asked him to vote this way and he did. If anything, this shows his commitment to the pro-choice movement. For NOW to assert that because he went with his local Planned Parenthood’s strategy instead of theirs, he’s somehow not totally pro-choice is the height of B.S. If they were honest, there’s plenty in Hillary ‘every abortion is a tragedy’ Clinton’s record that they could take issue with as well.

Admittedly, Hillary being a woman is a plus for her as a candidate in my book. But that doesn’t mean she gets a pass for every misstep she’s ever taken or that she can engage in whatever Rove-like tactics she wants in the name of winning.