Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

37° Evanston, IL
Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

Advertisement
Email Newsletter

Sign up to receive our email newsletter in your inbox.



Advertisement

Advertisement

Letters to the Editor: Irish headline offensive

Irish headline offensive

I understand that reporters like to use cute headlines for their articles, but referring to an event where nearly 1 million people died from disease and starvation in a sports headline is in my opinion, very inappropriate. I am referring to the April 10 article entitled, “Fighting Irish Goal Famine.” Maybe people do not know much about the effects of the Irish famine on Irish history and culture, but this title is incredibly offensive especially to someone of Irish descent. I guess at a top-rated school like Northwestern, I would expect more.

– Kendall Drew

McCormick junior

Pope to visit America

Three years ago, the largest concentration of world leaders, as well as 3 million ordinary citizens, gathered in Rome to pray for Pope John Paul II. This week, John Paul’s closest collaborator and elected successor will visit our country. Pope Benedict XVI was a beloved university professor in Germany whose lectures were so popular that not everyone had the fortune of listening to them. But now everyone can hear his message.

He will meet with the president, address world leaders in the United Nations, pray with representatives of other religions, and talk to university presidents. He will celebrate Mass for tens of thousands in Nationals Park and in Yankee Stadium, visit Ground Zero and Park East Synagogue in New York City and gather with young Catholics in Westchester County.

The Pope likes America and speaks excellent English. His undeserved image of what has been described as “stern, strict, haughty, powerful” contradicts what those who have actually met him say: He is humble, soft-spoken, highly rational and deeply spiritual. And his message to America is one of hope. In his most recent encyclical letter, he tells us that we all need greater and lesser hopes to sustain us every day. Men and women experience lesser hopes during the course of their lives – satisfying relationships, professional success, creating a better world – but soon it becomes evident that hope in the infinite is the only true, lasting hope in our lives.

In the coming days, we too can listen to this message of hope by a beloved university professor.

– Peter Anglada

Kellogg ’91

Life Sciences Financial Services Staff

Help a smoker out, NU

A scourge of litter robs the campus of its beauty, and the level of cigarette butts on the ground could be easily lessened by improving butt disposal. Moreover, I would like to point out that a vast number of ashtrays and snuffers are located near designated “no smoking” entrances. Many receptacles are located within the 25-foot no-puff zone established by the university, if not the 15-foot zone required by Illinois law, making it technically illegal to smoke respectfully near an ashtray. I completely understand that Northwestern wants to discourage and restrict smoking near campus buildings, as well as the fact that they have no control over state law.

However, since every campus building entrance is a non-smoking entrance, I feel it is only reasonable that the university establish all butt receptacles at locations that can be used by smokers legally.

Yes, putting every butt into an appropriate receptacle is the right thing to do, and I feel that it is the university’s responsibility to make all the receptacles legal and protect the person trying to do the right thing. Since they have been placing large signs at many entrances, they obviously are acknowledging that they recognize and plan on enforcing regulations. If they are going to force smokers to move 25 feet away from all the entrances, they should at least have the courteousness and forethought to move the ashtrays 25 feet out too. Please consider addressing this asinine predicament.

– Marshall Hilgemann

Communication sophomore

More to Discover
Activate Search
Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881
Letters to the Editor: Irish headline offensive