Opinion Columns
Aaron Cooper | The confidence game
First, I’d like to acknowledge that I was wrong. About a month ago, I published a column about what I called the lazy voting epidemic. People use gut-checks, self-identification and emotional appeals to dictate their vote, and that can cause real problems when it comes to the outcome of emotionally charged elections.
Emily Hoeven |It's complicated
“So how’s school going?” After the hello’s and how-are-you’s, those are probably the first words you hear from everybody you see when you go home for break.
Cameron Dichter | The other side of success
I’m not sure if it was because of my general air-headedness, or a product of the post-election fallout, but for whatever reason, I completely forgot to sign up for courses by the end of advanced registration.
James Lee | Breaking down fences
When the Supreme Court ruled affirmative action constitutional earlier this year, it did so based partly on the long-held belief that there exist “education benefits that flow from diversity.” Even people who oppose affirmative action as a policy generally agree with this premise.
Amanda Reid | Art-iculation
With the racist GroupMe messages targeted towards Black students, with the fear and mistrust that certain minorities groups have felt over the election and with the deepening of rhetorical divisions between political factions, it feels like the time to reform, rise and react has come upon us. The rallying cry demands healing.
Harrison Glicklich | A villain in our midst
If you have been paying neurotic attention to blockbuster releases recently, you may have noticed that there have been seven major superhero movies so far this year, many of them major box office successes.
Amy Chan | The sin of silence
Up until now, I have always been silent about my political views. As an Asian American woman, I was taught by my parents to work hard and keep my head down to achieve success.
Alec Ward | Laws without morals
In the question of how it should regard unaffiliated single-sex social clubs, Penn seems poised to “do a Harvard.” It shouldn’t. As anyone who has been following higher-education news for the past six months probably knows, the years-long conflict between Harvard College and the handful of independent single-sex social clubs to which many of its students belong reached a denouement last spring.
Emily Hoeven| An ordinary mind on an ordinary day
This past week has objectively been full of intense emotional and mental turmoil. I don’t think I’ve ever seen my newsfeed so consistently full of such long statuses written by so many people.
Aaron Cooper | Activism in Trump's America
Trump’s election represented a great blow to the forces of progress in America, as the American electorate chose a politics of short-sighted, reactionary hatred. But it also represents a great opportunity.
Alessandro van den Brink | Food for thought
It’s easy to take food for granted. Most Penn students either have a dining plan or can afford to purchase food from one of the numerous restaurants or grocery stores around campus.
Cameron Dichter | What love means
What love means “We can not be free until they are free” There is no simple explanation — and therefore no simple solution — for the tragedy that is a Donald Trump presidency.
James Lee | The darkened city upon a hill
America, I am sick to my stomach. I am distraught. I am heartbroken. I am worried. Let’s step back, as an emotional reaction is not always a useful indicator of things.
Alec Ward | Welcome to Time Zero
Now, we fight. Or at least, we prepare to. All decent people will hope and pray that Trump’s campaign promises to destroy the constitutional order, to violate the civil liberties of millions of Americans, to commit war crimes and retaliate against his political opponents were the kind of empty bluster we know he is capable of.
Ashley Stinnett | Who won the election?
It is 6:30 a.m. on Nov. 9 as I write this. I am in my month of silence for the monk class, and as such, I cannot talk to people, consume any media or read anything outside of what is required for my coursework.
Guest column by Maya Arthur | How to search for your body (even when in flames)
My body is burning. Flames sidle up and down my skin. The fire ignites and dies down. It’s a cyclical burn, charring my already black skin.
Alessandro van den Brink | The next step
America is not doomed. But man, should we be embarrassed. Donald Trump has run a campaign fueled by hatred, bluster, ignorance and a complete lack of morality.
Toe the Line: Penn Democrats | Elect Hillary Clinton and Katie McGinty
Voting in a swing state like Pennsylvania carries with it an obligation to the rest of the country to carefully consider our options in each race.
GROUP THINK | Free speech at Penn
GROUP THINK is the DP’s round table section, where we throw a question at the columnists and see what answers stick.