Love, Ames: Learning to love

is the way to go about celebrating Valentine’s, if it must be celebrated at all.

I’m still mad when people find ways to monetize those, like through limited-edition Valentine’s bath products or holiday-specific board games.

I still roll my eyes whenever I pass Walmart’s candy row, decked out in pinks and reds — and I roll them even harder when my next thought is something along the lines of: “That’ll be a great clearance sale after Valentine’s Day.” because of societal demands, even though I preached my hatred for it both verbally and through lots and lots of writing.

Freshman Ames said it best: “When one of the best things about a holiday is the sales during or after it, you’re not really celebrating the actual idea behind it.” Say it, 2020 me!

So here I am — I’ve complained about Valentine’s Day, as promised. And in the end, I feel almost a little sad. Like something is missing.

This is going to sound cheesier than a $249 Valentine’s Day charcuterie board (which, yes, is a real thing), but maybe all along, that missing piece was love.

As I approach graduation — something that is on a lot of seniors’ minds right now, this I know — I finally feel the love and appreciation that I have been lacking for so long.

I love my family, who have supported me throughout college with visits and letters and calls.

I love my friends, who listen to me when I cry, who hold me back when necessary and push me forward when necessary, who have always come back to me.

I love my girlfriend — obviously.

I love my teammates, a group of — well, they’re more family than friends, aren’t they? People who see me at my best and my worst and still stand and perform by my side.

AMES RADWAN

OPINION EDITOR

Hi! I’m Ames, and I hate Valentine’s Day.

On a day filled with love and affection and heart-shaped everything, it can be fairly uncommon to see spite and vitriol — well, unless maybe you’re single. But, for the past three years, I have made it my personality to showcase the dark side of Valentine’s Day and tell the world just how much I hate this holiday.

Longtime readers of The Miami Student may remember my Love, Ames columns from each of the past three years.

In 2020, as a baby-faced fresh- man happily in a relationship, I shouted from the rooftops that Valentine’s Day was being overtaken by capitalism, that no one should have to celebrate their love for someone just because a certain day dictates it.

Then, in 2021, as a still-babyfaced sophomore still in a relationship, I allowed my shell to soften a little — only a little! — as I admitted that Valentine’s Day was not all too bad when the strict regulations of a pandemic world kept us all from seeing the people we loved. But I still hated it!

Let that be known.

Last year in 2022, as a hardened junior fresh out of a breakup, I went right back to being The Student’s resident V-Day misanthrope. I doubled down on the capitalistic tendencies of the holiday and claimed that monetizing love was not the way to go about celebrating it. I warned readers of The Student that, although I would steer clear of complaining about Valentine’s Day to avoid looking like a newly single and therefore bitter cynic, I would be back in 2023 to complain once more.

Well, here we are. It’s 2023.

I still think $115 is a bit much to pay for a floral Valentine’s Day gift, like Oxford Flower Shop’s “Classic Rose Royale” arrangement. I would still rather give my significant other a hug than a $255 life-sized teddy bear that was only $230 last year. I still think that doing something “special”

I’m not talking about love from my parents or friends or from significant others — I’m happy to report that I have love from these others in abundance. I have amazing family, great friends and even a wonderful girlfriend. A lack of love from other people is not an issue.

All along, I think I didn’t have enough love in my heart for the world around me.

I saw others fill their lives with heart-shaped chocolates and fancy jewelry, but what’s more, I saw what lies beneath that: the ability — nay, the want — to show off that love in their hearts to others. Though I gave Valentine’s and Galentine’s gifts every year, it was out of duty — a duty with which I felt forced to comply,

I love everyone I’ve met at Miami, even if I don’t like them one bit, because every experience I’ve had here has shaped me into the person I am today.

(And I love the TMS readers, too!) I have so much love in my heart now, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. There will always be heartbreak and hatred and seriously unnecessary spending of money we college students don’t have, but haven’t we always heard — through Disney and Pride and every love story ever — that love conquers all?

Through my four years of writing “Love, Ames,” that is what I most needed to learn, and I’m grateful for it. I hope that maybe, after reading this, you feel a little more love in your heart, too.

Love, Ames radwanat@miamioh.edu

What’s happening with the ERA?

Sarah Norton Guest Columnist

On Jan. 31 I read an article stating that the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was ratified. Yay! I was excited to hear this, but then I realized I didn’t really know what it meant.

I recognize that I am woefully uninformed in rights/documents concerning who I am, and I want to change that. Although this is by no means fully comprehensive, I am writing this article to help people understand a little better what is happening in the world today. The ERA was written in 1923 by

Alice Paul and Crystal Eastman. This amendment was written to advance the first wave of feminism after the 19th Amendment (the right for women to vote) was included in the Constitution. It was designed to guarantee equal rights for women and end the legal distinctions between men and women.

While this document is important for women, it wasn’t passed until 1972! That’s forty years after it was introduced, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

For an amendment to be ratified (approved), it must pass Congress with a two-thirds majority vote. Congress is composed of the House of nortons2@miamioh.edu

Representatives and the Senate, so an amendment must have a majority vote in both. Next, it goes to the states to be ratified.

After the amendment was passed, it was sent to the states to ratify it. Thirty-eight states needed to approve it within seven years. Five years after it was passed (1977), thirty-five out of the thirty-eight had ratified the ERA. Since it was getting close to the seven-year deadline (1979), Congress extended it by three years. This puts us at 1982 and still only thirty-five states had ratified.

No action was taken with it (by the states) until 2017 when Nevada ratified the ERA and then Illinois in 2018.

Virginia was the thirty-eighth state in 2020. We had thirty-eight states, but the deadline had passed — what now?

Fast-forward to Jan. 31. U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley and Senator Ben Cardin introduced a joint resolution to remove the deadline for ratification.

A similar resolution has been passed two times by the House of Representatives (February 2020 and March 2021), but it hasn’t passed in the Senate yet. This is because most of the Senate GOP is using the time passed as a reason to block it. A vote for the Senate had yet to be scheduled as of Feb. 15.

This progress is great, but we’re not finished yet. We must pass this vote for the ERA to be included in the Constitution. It’s important for everyone to stay informed, especially on issues relating to how you identify yourself.