This past week has been filled with tragedy, fear and relief for not only the city of Boston, but the entire coun­try. The events seem to be more like a sea­son of the tele­vi­sion show “24” than actual reality.

While I’m not dis­cred­it­ing the tragedy of the mat­ter, it’s still impor­tant to keep in per­spec­tive that this is not an uncom­mon occurrence.

The amount of media atten­tion and out­pour­ing of sup­port was far beyond any cov­er­age of any inci­dent in the war-torn coun­tries of the Middle East. There were no fundrais­ing efforts for the peo­ple of Syria or the rest of the nations that went through Arab Spring, which I’m sadly sure that a vast major­ity of the stu­dent body thinks means an unusu­ally warm April. (more…)

“The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” tells us that man assumes he is the most intel­li­gent being on the planet because he has built and achieved so much, whilst dol­phins did lit­tle more than frolic in the oceans enjoy­ing life.

Dolphins, how­ever, tend to think the exact oppo­site of humans for the same reasons.

Much like the dol­phins in “The Guide,” I will be leav­ing Ferris and all of you fine stu­dents and fac­ulty mem­bers behind. This will be my last opin­ion col­umn in the Ferris State Torch. (more…)

A part of my life is soon com­ing to an end.

It is spring 2013 and time to say good­bye after 19 years of school. That is almost two decades, and 82.6 per­cent of my life that has been spent in school, which is just crazy. What is my next step? Well, hope­fully a job, but as of today, I do not know my future. I do not have a plan.

Come May 11 when I walk the stage in Wink Arena, I will be leav­ing Ferris; leav­ing friends; leav­ing fam­ily; leav­ing my job; leav­ing my home of five years. It seems I will be leav­ing a lot behind but tak­ing a lot more with me. (more…)

There is a kid who showed up to Ferris State, blind as to what his edu­ca­tional tal­ents were at the begin­ning of the 2012 fall semester.

All he knew is that he loved to write, yet he didn’t know what he was capa­ble of, espe­cially with his high school test­ing scores and grade point average.

The kid took a job at the cam­pus news­pa­per as a sports reporter, hop­ing maybe this was the out­let that would show him suc­cess. (more…)

I will begin this sim­ply. There is no excuse for the actions that took place in Doctor (if you can even call him that) Gosnell’s “Women’s Medical Society.” The heinous acts of mur­der, neg­li­gence and greed will offend any­one and prove to show that this prob­lem is not about abor­tion, it is about the lack­adaisi­cal func­tion­ing and over­sight of a bureau­cracy run amok.

While pro-lifers will use this inci­dent as a ral­ly­ing cry to gar­ner sup­port for their cause, the true under­pin­nings of the crimes that occurred on 3801 Lancaster Street in Philadelphia will be soon for­got­ten due to the polit­i­cal tur­moil sur­round­ing abor­tion in the United States. We need to set aside the dif­fer­ences in this case and look directly at the cause, not the out­come. (more…)

Let’s think back to the begin­ning of the semester.

Play back the mem­o­ries you had either as an incom­ing fresh­man or out­go­ing senior. A very dif­fer­ent mind­set now exists for both of these classes of peo­ple. Game on! If you are a senior and grad­u­at­ing, this is the most excit­ing time of your life. You could care less about the prob­lems around you and only that win­ning a diploma is finally in sight.

Can you believe your col­lege career is almost over? Read between the lines—that means you now have to enter the real world. This quandary of job search­ing for many is a stren­u­ous task, only exac­er­bated by the dreaded unpaid intern­ship. Comment on the lack of pay to a poten­tial employer and you might as well fill out your wel­fare paper­work now. (more…)

Are we liv­ing above our needs?

I know I could eas­ily live with­out a tele­vi­sion or my iPhone. Have I cho­sen to live with­out it? No.

So this col­umn is not about lec­tur­ing any­one, but to encour­age you to hon­estly think about what you truly need for hap­pi­ness. (more…)

Jars of baby feet and fetal remains.

Bloodstained walls, sheets and women lying half life­less in chairs.

Babies born, cry­ing with life, then scis­sors to their necks, sev­er­ing their spinal cords. Some die imme­di­ately. For oth­ers it is slower, and they twitch about. A woman, strapped to a bed, cries out that she wants to keep her baby. But a mon­ster calls her the baby, and she is out­num­bered by staff who proceed.

She wakes up groggy but knows her baby is no longer with her. She weeps and asks to hold her child. But no one answers. They all ignore her.

Does this sound like some­thing out of a hor­ror movie?

It’s not. It’s real. It is the story of Kermit Gosnell and his abor­tion clinic in Philadelphia, Pa. on 3801 Lancaster Avenue. The doc­u­men­tary “3801 Lancaster” reveals the truth behind this nightmare.

For those of you not famil­iar with this story, Gosnell’s clinic was up and run­ning for many years. In fact, the last time a rep­re­sen­ta­tive from the state depart­ment of health had inspected the clinic was 1993.

Gosnell pri­mar­ily per­formed late term abor­tions, in which the fetus is often viable. Various atroc­i­ties took place at Gosnell’s far below par facil­ity, includ­ing one woman suf­fer­ing a per­fo­rated uterus in 1996, another dying after an abor­tion in 2002, and another dead in 2009. One died because a gen­eral office worker started her anes­the­sia, and she suf­fered a lethal over­dose. The health depart­ment was noti­fied of all these incidents,

Not once did they investigate.

In addi­tion to these heinous crimes, seven infants expe­ri­enced Gosnell’s hor­rific snip­ping pro­ce­dure, live babies murdered.

As I type I feel my stom­ach churn, but I try to keep my words lucid and com­posed. I don’t know what infu­ri­ates me the most: The obscen­i­ties that occurred at this ter­ri­ble excuse for a med­ical facil­ity by this man and the irre­spon­si­ble work­ers below him, the utter neg­li­gence of those who are sup­posed to pro­tect our health and com­mu­ni­ties from these kinds of atroc­i­ties, or the fact that it takes an event like this for peo­ple to real­ize the hor­ror of abor­tion, for moth­ers and babies. There are those who will call this case mur­der­ous, but still jus­tify the killing of a human baby as long as it’s not viable. We demand rights for diverse sex­u­al­i­ties and gen­ders and eth­nic­i­ties and races and classes. Yet we fail to give the most basic right of life to the inno­cent who can­not speak up for themselves.

One woman had eight abor­tions by Gosnell in 14 years, and when she returned after her first, one of the work­ers explained how per­fectly nor­mal abor­tion is. For every abor­tion after, she viewed it as a form of birth con­trol. Reflecting in the doc­u­men­tary, she says she doesn’t know what she was think­ing, as she weeps bitterly.

Ferris women, this is you. You are those at risk. If this heart­break­ing story doesn’t change your views of abor­tion for the hor­ren­dous act that it is (and as polar as the issue of abor­tion is, I doubt it will), at least become an advo­cate for your health and the health of oth­ers by speak­ing up in the face of med­ical atroc­i­ties and become a pro­po­nent for qual­ity care. Those that are pro-choice argue the impor­tance of this plat­form on giv­ing women con­trol. Control of their lives and their bod­ies. But women, when you let your body into the hands of a mon­ster like Gosnell, or any­one who will take that life from you or put your life at risk, you relin­quish control.

My col­leagues, my fel­low stu­dents who have under­gone abortions—I don’t con­demn you. I can’t imag­ine the emo­tional toil, the pain and the pres­sure of know­ing the respon­si­bil­ity of a child—it’s impact on your hopes and dreams or the pain of car­ry­ing the child of rape. I can’t think of any­one who likes abor­tion. But don’t let peo­ple desen­si­tize you to it. Using pro­tec­tion if sex is your choice or mak­ing the choice with your body to sus­tain a life if you do become preg­nant is giv­ing you more power and con­trol than you could ever have in the hands of some­one who will take that new life away.

One point made in the doc­u­men­tary addressed the preva­lence of abor­tion clin­ics in inner-cities, African American com­mu­ni­ties, and minor­ity com­mu­ni­ties, tar­get­ing those already oppressed. They offer their ser­vices as if they are the only choice. They aren’t. You have options. The road won’t be easy choos­ing life, but nei­ther will choos­ing abor­tion. Make the choice that saves lives and pro­motes health for all.