Category: Perspectives

“All I wanted was a low-fat moccachino!”

Chewie!

Many of the stories reported by THE FREE PRESS are critical of the University administration, its decisions and policies. As a reporter for the paper, I’ve talked to a lot of students and come away with one underlying impression: many students don’t think University officials are looking out for them or have their best interests in mind.

At the beginning of the year I embarked upon a game of strip poker and last week I lost. Now, I stand here naked before you.

“Pepper”

“Poor Sharon. We were in the middle of nowhere and she had just fallen off her horse and couldn’t move. We put up a tarp to shelter her from the sun and exchanged ideas. The sun was hot, all of us were emotionally strung out – especially Sharon’s husban, Noam – and a sense of helplessness was taking over.”

Five USM students recently attended a conference at Harvard not knowing where they would sleep. The four girls and guy found an offer of floor space in a dorm room though, and everyone left with a smile. The conference was organized by Harvard’s Environmental Action Committee and The Climate Campaign, a coalition of Northeast schools from nine states working to reduce human activities that contribute to global climate change.

Are young potential voters a lost cause?

Liability vs. sustainability: a crowning moment; Changing the U; University unsympathetic to Jewish position; Insensitive Achewood; Logo and other projects free and worthwhile; Christian supporters of gay marriage are hypocrites; Johnny, get your gun.

Imagine opening a magazine one day and seeing a photograph of your sisters mutilated body and face twisted with the metal of a trainwreck. Imagine being able to see her face, the pain of her death still frozen upon it. Perhaps you already knew your sister had died and were wanting more information on the events.

USM’s financial practices are a conundrum. We have no money and then we have even less money, yet the University continues to spend.

“We had last week off and so I went back to San Pedro de Atacama in Chile to visit friends and talk with some of the local women about the work they do in weaving and other textiles….”

“I met a crazy Yank named Tim from Colorado at the train station in Mongolia and that’s where it all began….”

Why vampires should not suck their thumbs.

This election year, we in the state of Maine have a new political force we can look towards and call our own: Bull Moose Music.

Christians support Gay marriage; A liberal with proof; Police should attend convocation; Sex industry breeds violence; Take Back the Night this month.

Can we possibly expect to understand how our cumulative daily choices affect the world around us? How can we best work together to design communities that offer a better quality of life? This is just what an ambitious USM student-sponsored conference aims to do this Thursday.

“Fair & Balanced”

“Goodbye, cruel world…”

“Cumberland County Jail…”

It was this time last year when The Free Press reported the tragic drug overdose of USM Portland Hall resident Nick Johnston, who died March 22. Barely two weeks later (April 5) another USM student, Seamus Nee, died in a car accident on the snowy April roads….

Taman Negara National Park is set in the middle of Malaysia. This magnificent rainforest claims to be the oldest in the world, apparently because no natural disasters have touched it throughout its 130-million-year history. I decided to venture into this incredible place along with a mate I had been traveling with for a while, Paul from England.