Universities across the nation are looking for ways to become more energy efficient and eco-friendly. One strategy implemented by various campuses is the restriction of plastic bottled water sales in an effort to encourage the use of reusable water containers. Although Miami University has not fully explored the option of limiting bottled water, officials said they are looking at all options to improve sustainability.
The editorial board of The Miami Student supports eco-friendly practices but does not believe restricting sales of bottled water is a good option. Students deserve choices and should not be limited in their choices of healthy options like water when soft drinks continue to be readily offered in similar plastic containers. Many students living on campus are limited to what the university offers. To take away the right to purchase bottled water is invasive.
Installing water filtration systems as some other universities are doing is certainly commendable, but probably not the best option for Miami, which is in the middle of a budget crisis. Instead of spending thousands of dollars on water systems, encouraging recycling practices and promoting the practice of refilling water bottles will be more effective in the long run. In general, students should be conscientious of their bottled water purchases and find ways to become more Earth friendly. Right now, though, Miami is facing bigger, more pressing issues than dealing with the concept of water filtration or taking the drastic step of banning bottled water.
Vagina Monologues disregards goal of feminism
Leaving class in Harrison Hall Thursday, I happened to pass by a poster from the Claire Booth Luce Institute that was, presumably, hung by the True Feminists of Miami University student organization. The advertisement, designed by the Institute, lambasts the production of Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues claiming that the play is disgusting and degrading to women. I'd like to voice concern over the True Feminists' decision to paper the campus with these flyers.
I understand that not all people espouse the same political and social views and that The Vagina Monologues means different things to different people. However, I find it unfortunate that a student organization would so explicitly decry the production without offering any form of alternative discourse on the matter.
Understandably, there are elements to Ensler's play that some may find objectionable, but to dismiss it entirely seems to demonstrate a callous disregard toward the personal sentiment of other members of the feminist community. For many, The Vagina Monologues has been an affirming and transformative experience. The play's exploration of female sexuality, sexual assault and other topics of female empowerment is a powerful display of self-ownership and the reclamation of power that has been used against women in the United States and abroad. To blithely denigrate the importance of this play is a clear exhibition of the True Feminists' exclusivity and disregard for the full spectrum of feminist ideology. Given that the proceeds of the Association for Women Students' production of The Vagina Monologues benefit the Butler County Rape Crisis Program, it is especially troubling that the True Feminists would attack these efforts.
On a campus that occasionally struggles with social issues, the True Feminists seem to be engaging in an overt act of horizontal hostility that creates discord among groups working toward the same vertical goal. No social change can be brought about if we disregard the perspectives that differ from our own. Furthermore, to name a group in a manner that claims supremacy over a school of thought bears a degree of responsibility, and the exclusion of other perspectives is illustrative of an irresponsible, autocratic intellectual imperialism.
In light of the recent wave of anti-worker rights legislation being pushed as a false means to right the fiscal problems of state budgets, I believe it's time that the unions and other such groups start an initiative to be put on the ballot to ensure such rights in the state constitution. That would mean no governor or legislature would ever be able to gut the rights of workers to organize and collective bargain again since it would be part of the state's constitution. Case closed.
The amendment can simply state that workers of all types, public and private, have the right to form unions for collective bargaining of all aspects of their working environment. That's it, plain and simple.
Now is also the perfect time to get the initiative on the ballot. Since tens of thousands of people are at the capital and other cities protesting, they will surely get the signatures needed to sign the petition to get it on the ballot. They can also throw in that overtime is to be paid for any hours worked over eight in a day instead of the usual 40 for the week that is the current law. This would help the non-union workers as well.
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I'm sure it would pass overwhelmingly in nearly every state in the country, starting with Ohio and Wisconsin, doing it one state at a time. This is simply about state constitutions and not the United States Constitution. It would ensure the rights of all working people the rich live off of to have the option to collectively bargain. It would not force unions on people who have never been in unions. I'm sure, though, the corporate Right will paint it out as such with many more lies worse than that to try to defeat it. It's simply their way.
It is time for the working people to stand up and fight once again for their rights. It's not going to be given to us. Our grandparents did it during the Great Depression. People died protesting to get those rights.
It's time Generation X, Y and Z start earning what was provided to them and making it better. Ignore this and you will pay because what's happened before can happen again. It could be you the next time who will join in the pain if you don't get up and stop what's happening. Now, where's your freedom?
Rain
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