The Optimist
You are here: Home / Opinion

LA Spring Break Campaign joins the dream team

by

By Joseph Austin, Students' Association treasurer This past spring break Mireya Reyes and I led a group of nine people to Los Angeles to work with the Dream Center. The Dream Center is a volunteer driven organization filling the needs of more than 50,000 people every month. The Dream Center does it all from mobile hunger relief, medical programs, ... [Read More…]

Pope pledges papacy of poverty

by

The Roman Catholic Church has a new spiritual leader. During spring break, Jorge Mario Bergoglio ascended to the papal throne after a vote from his peers. As a member of the "conclave," the session that led to the election of the new pope, Bergoglio was a cardinal (though he didn't have to be, as I incorrectly reported in my previous column on ... [Read More…]

Salem SBC serves alongside Soma ministry

by

For me, spring break has always been about travel. I wanted this spring break to be different, so I made the split-second decision to sign up for a Spring Break Campaign. It was definitely a leap of faith because I didn't have the money to pay for the trip and there were only three weeks left to raise it. But I felt called to go. So I joined the ... [Read More…]

Manchester campaign evaluates labels

by

Humans like to label. We label to organize. To categorize. We even like to re-label. To rename the things that make us uncomfortable. We even relabeled the term "relabel," and instead we use euphemisms. We relabel our actions. It's not downloading music illegally, it's "file-sharing." We aren't counting the number of civilians dead, just the ... [Read More…]

Chavez still controversial in death

by

Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela, died on March 5 at the age of 58, two years after revealing his cancer diagnosis. As the grandson of Cuban immigrants, my first reaction was to wonder how on earth former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro managed to outlive his best bud Chavez. Castro's smoked at least 1,000 acres of tobacco. But I digress. Chavez ... [Read More…]

How to deal with another tuition increase

by

ACU raised tuition again, and, not surprisingly, students are upset that their $26,770 will no longer cover the cost of taking 24-36 hours. Next school year they must pay $28,350. So, in the spirit of making financial cutbacks for the greater good, let's examine how ACU students could save some green to make these terribly expensive and terribly ... [Read More…]

Burning the Quran does not make you an expert

by

There aren't very many Muslims in Texas. Not that I've crossed paths with, anyways. What I know about Muslims comes mostly from the media, and they've gotten a pretty bad rap in the last couple of years. Burkas, beards and turbans. That's the image that pops into my head. But that's really not the whole picture at all. I'm taking a class called ... [Read More…]

The time has come to watch our mouths

by

Words are powerful, but sometimes it's hard to grasp the concept of just how powerful they are. Some words have been remembered over the years because of the speaker who said them. Some have been remembered because of their message. And then there are the words that stick in people's minds because of the terrible reputation they have been ... [Read More…]

You are here: Home / Opinion