Spectrum File Photo For me, fall has always been a paradoxical time of the year. It?s a time of transition ? a time to embrace the coexistence and interdependence of life and death and smooth the dichotomy that normally separates them. I love the way the trees? bare branches scratch the sky and there?s nothing more satisfying than the crunch of a maple leaf?s skeleton under my shoes.
Spectrum File Photo Every October, my family and I drive out to Medina, New York ? a town about 45 minutes from campus, and an hour from my house. I?ve never actually spent any time in Medina, or in the various shops on its streets.
Spectrum File Photo As we drove up the hill located on St. Vincent and the Grenadines? capital city, Kingston, the dim glow of the candles on different graves created a beautiful scene in an eerie kind of way.
The Spectrum is consistently supportive of the SAFE Act, and gun control at large. But although keeping guns out of the hands of criminals and unstable individuals is of crucial importance, as is the prevention of gun violence in general, safety cannot come at the expense of civil rights and social equality. Balancing freedom and protection is no easy task, but the scales have been tipped too far with the sweeping, hasty establishment of a database of approximately 34,500 New Yorkers whose mental instability is considered to outweigh their Second Amendment rights. Individuals who are legitimately mentally ill or unstable ? to the point where they?re violent or unpredictable, or a danger to themselves or others ? should not be permitted to carry firearms. That much is ? hopefully ? straightforward and logical even in the perspective of the most avid advocates for gun rights.
Living next door to uncooperative or unpleasant neighbors may be an unavoidable experience, but residents of Tonawanda are doing all they can to prevent a crematory from reopening in their neighborhood. It?s a legal battle that shouldn?t exist in the first place ? neither Tonawandan residents nor Amigone Funeral Home, the owners of the crematory, deserve much blame here. Instead, it was the Erie County Legislature in 1991 that set this dilemma in motion, when it gave the funeral home permission to build the crematory in the densely populated, residential neighborhood along Sheridan Drive. This original decision was an inexplicable oversight and has left residents of Tonawanda stuck living alongside the ash (and yes, that?s human ash), noise, soot and foul odors produced by the crematory.
Spectrum file photo When I started the semester, I thought that having two part time jobs and being a full time student would be the biggest stressors in my life.
Spectrum File Photo I snuck into a women?s soccer practice two Saturdays ago. No, I wasn?t there to get a quote from head coach Shawn Burke or catch a secret glimpse of the Bulls.
Five states ? Oregon, Washington, Montana, Vermont and New Mexico ? have what are known as ?death with dignity laws,? which legalize physician-assisted suicide. The practice differs slightly in each state, but essentially, in these five states, patients with a terminal diagnosis who wish to end their own life have the right to do so.
Art by Amber Sliter For a store that sells athletic gear (if see-through yoga pants can be called ?athletic?), Lululemon doesn?t seem to understand much about sports. The company, which regularly works to cater their stores to the local area, installed a mosaic on the floor of their store in Walden Galleria, which referenced two historical embarrassments for Buffalo?s sports teams. The mosaic, which was installed in July but went viral on social media this past week, spells out ?Wide Right? and ?No Goal,? referencing the Bills? missed field goal in the 1991 Super Bowl and the Sabres? loss in the 1999 Stanley Cup Final. Lululemon?s intentions appear wholesome ? trying to customize their stores to the area and show off their knowledge of the local history is a nice touch ? but somewhere along the way the company?s plan went awry and they ended up insulting an entire city. Maybe Buffalo sports fans are a little more sensitive than the average football fanatic.
When I started the semester, I thought that having two part time jobs and being a full time student would be the biggest stressors in my life.
It?s unclear whether Texas or the Supreme Court has less respect for women, but either way, the state?s attempt to bypass the latter and restrict the rights of woman have been mercifully unsuccessful. Tuesday night, the Supreme Court temporarily blocked a Texas law that would have significantly cut down the number of open abortion clinics in the state. The ruling suspends the Oct.
Though there are all too many economic hardships challenging residents of Erie County, increased taxes in the coming year won't be one of them. On Wednesday,
Art by Amber Sliter It took only a three-game win streak in 2012 for Athletic Director Danny White to grant head football coach Jeff Quinn a contract extension through 2017.
It took only a three-game win streak in 2012 for Athletic Director Danny White to grant head football coach Jeff Quinn a contract extension through 2017.
The lights in the locker room suddenly shut off, and upperclassmen pinned down a freshman football player, lifted him to his feet while forcing a finger in his rectum ? afterwards, the same finger would sometimes be pushed into the freshman?s mouth. This horrifying tradition allegedly happened almost every day in the school?s locker room. That?s the ugly ? the reprehensible, the repulsive, the ?how could this have been happening in a high school locker room? ? the details of the sexual violence that became ritual among senior members of Sayreville War Memorial High School?s football team. Seven players have been charged with crimes ranging from aggravated sexual assault to criminal restraint for their roles in the violent, ritualistic attacks ? let?s not reduce it to ?hazing,? because this goes beyond connotations of teasing and pranks, and veers closer to rape. And now, the bad: Players would change in the hallway before practice.
I had planned on publishing a column very similar to this for Wednesday?s issue of The Spectrum.
When 42-year-old Omar Gonzalez, an Iraq War veteran with a history of post-traumatic stress disorder, scaled a fence and made it into the White House, he could not have known his intrusion would become emblematic of the troubling failures of an agency, which, given its task, should never falter. The recent security breach at the White House ended up breaking open the floodgates on the Secret Service?s competency, transparency and management.
Art by Amber Sliter One out of every four children born in Buffalo?s East Side is the result of a teenage pregnancy.
Spectrum File Photo The football team?s 36-35 loss to Bowling Green last Saturday should have been the Bulls? low point of the season.
Spectrum File Photo ?THE WORLD IS ENDING. HOW ABOUT NO,? is the Facebook message I woke up to Thursday afternoon from my best friend, Katie. On Wednesday night, 18-year-old Vonderitt Deondre Myers was shot and killed by an off-duty police officer in his native St.
Solutions by The State News
