Opinion Political polarization and the case of gun control
TECHNICIAN
PAGE 5 • MONDAY, MARCH 19, 2018
It is no secret that we live in a politically polarized time in the United States. While this approach is both exciting to be a part of and very effective at generating Connor votes, it is not so good at Fraley getting things done. Correspondent St udent s ac ros s t he country walked out of their classrooms last week to demonstrate their opposition to the lack of action that their respective governments have taken on helping ensure school safety. Everyone wants school safety. Yet, when negotiations and ideas hit the table about how to make this happen, we end up with toxic arguments, name-calling and rights groups like the National Rifle Association being thrown under the bus. “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” The Second Amendment is exactly the reason why we cannot enact sweeping policies as other countries have. Most gun control advocates fail to provide support against the fact that the right to bear arms is written into the supreme law of the land. They turn to name-calling, labeling a rights group like the NRA from anything between an insensitive group of gun-toting Americans who care noth-
ing about school shooting to a pseudowhite supremacy group. The right wants schools to be safe too. It is no better on the other side. Part of the main pushback that Second Amendment supporters give to the notion of gun control is concern about a tyrannical government. The basis of the Second Amendment was from the oppression that Britain exacted on the colonies by restricting weaponry and posting soldiers in the streets. People on the right today fear that if our government were ever to go that far, the first thing they would do is take away the weapons from the people. So they turn to name-calling, labeling gun control advocates as tyrannical Marxists who want to turn America into a socialist wasteland. The left wants schools to be safe too. The issue of gun control is not an easy one. Although there are some weapons that civilians have no business needing or wanting, like M60s, RPGs and grenade launchers, the constitution is sacred, and the Second Amendment is broad. The problem also is not going away quietly. The people of this country are keeping it front and center, even though it has been a month since the shooting in Florida. In a step in the right direction, President Trump has taken action on certain weapon modifications like bump stocks, announcing, “I signed a memo directing the attorney general to propose regula-
tions that ban all devices that turn legal weapons into machine guns,” while also pushing for better responsiveness from law enforcement agencies and more thorough background checks. While his propositions face some opposition, it seems that Trump is taking as neutral ground as possible in order to make positive change happen in the short term. In Florida, a bill was passed to raise the minimum age for buying a weapon to 21, among other limitations. The NRA filed a lawsuit hours later to block the measure, one that will likely succeed. The right to bear arms can be restricted for minors in the same way as they are restricted from voting, but citizens between the ages of 18 and 21 are not minors. Even if that part of the measure fails, it still contributes to the conversation on how we can increase school safety without infringing on the rights of the people. The discussion has already led stores like Walmart choosing to not sell guns to people under 21, a decision that any business has the right to make. This is an important piece to note because progress does not have to be imposed from the national government. Businesses can make changes too, and so can school districts and the states. It may be that the solution to this problem can be found by trying every option and seeing which works best. But the bottom line is this: something
must be done. When attempts to move forward are blocked and bombarded with insults, shutting down dialogue, the result is inaction. Whatever pleasure people get from taking part in a negatively charged and heavily polarized political system is not worth the sludge that our legislatures and executives have to dredge through to make progress on an issue that literally everyone agrees on. It’s infuriating. In Federalist Paper No. 1, Alexander Hamilton calls upon the citizens of the country to not demonize their political opposition. He denounces “that intolerant spirit which has, at all times characterized political parties” and calls for moderation in political discourse. Like school safety, Hamilton is someone everyone can agree with. His claims were foundational to how he wanted his readers to change their approach to the incredibly divisive political discourse that deciding upon a new constitution represented in that time. I encourage you to embrace his message, and do your part in making the political process a more respectable and productive one by informing yourself about the issues instead of ignoring them, by treating your opposition as other human beings instead of heartless monsters and by taking part in the timeless American tradition of arguing — not against your opponents, but against their ideas.
For a prospective employer, you are a piece of paper: your resume It is the job hunting time of the year, whether for full-time or part-time positions. I have full faith in the education that our university imparts and the skill set of the WolfParitosh pack, but there is a great Gaiwak deal of competition in Staff Columnist industry. You are often only judged at first glance by the qual-
ity of your resume, whether you apply online or you attend a career fair. While you may get a chance to interact with the recruiters from a company in the fair, do not assume that interaction to be an interview itself. Your resume, dazzling as it may be, is just one in a pile of resumes. This implies that out of the huge number of job applicants, a very small percentage ever get interview calls based on this interaction.
This is primarily because a lot of students are applying for jobs, which makes it difficult for an individual to remember names and profiles. I had the opportunity to have dinner with a family as a part of a cross-cultural interaction program. The person whose house I was invited to was a part of the recruiting committee of Lenovo. He told me that a recruiter does not read a resume for more than 10 seconds, owing to the
huge number of applications. This means that if you wish to apply for a job, you must highlight your skills properly, or else the recruiters will lose interest in you immediately. The resume should be a clear and concise document of your skills and projects in which you used those skills. A good approach to build a resume is
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