RUTHFULLY YOURS

Women Need the Right to Bear Arms

If you don’t support Second Amendment rights, you can’t claim to be a supporter of the #MeToo movement. In the fall of 2016 I was a senior at my dream university in Philadelphia. What started as an ordinary day ended up being the worst of my life: I was violently raped. At the time I was a law-abiding gun owner, but I couldn’t bring my gun with me to my gun-free university. That senseless rule left me defenseless. I was just months away from being the first in my family to graduate from college, but I was forced to drop out due to the emotional trauma stemming from my assault.

Unfortunately, there are times when women in particular need to have a reliable means of self-defense. There are times when seconds count and no one is there to save us. If you won’t respect our right to bear arms and let us have a reliable means of self-defense on college campuses, you have no right to tell us you stand with victims of sexual assault.

–Savannah Lindquist, Tidewater Community College and Old Dominion University, majoring in psychology.

Israel Is Powerful. That Doesn’t Make it Wrong

Why do my peers oppose Israel? Not because college students are anti-Semitic, but because most hold one truth to be self-evident: Powerlessness implies moral legitimacy. The Israelis are powerful; the Palestinians are not. As such, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is merely a struggle between victim and oppressor, and nobody wants to support the oppressor.

Accordingly, campus pro-Israel groups often try to portray Israel as a victim, too—a victim of international bias and unprovoked aggression from its Arab neighbors. This strategy, however, has failed. It will continue to fail because even though Israel may be under threat, it isn’t powerless. Israel’s army is strong and its technology is advanced. But power doesn’t automatically imply moral turpitude; and conversely, powerlessness does not guarantee goodness. In other words, might does not make Israel right, but it certainly does not make Israel wrong, either. Indeed, Israel strives for justice and peace. But students can’t see that when they allow the popular morality of power to obscure the truth.

–Benjamin Simon, Stanford University, intends to major in philosophy and religious studies and computer science.

We Don’t Care About Human Rights

In the last election, how many Americans actually thought about whether our House and Senate candidates would support ending weapons sales to Saudi Arabia? Did we think about the bomb the U.S. sold to the Saudis that ended the lives of 40 Yemeni children on a school field trip in August? Not enough. We can’t act surprised when our elected representatives don’t protect international human rights. The politicians know that when we walk into the voting booth, we care about the people of Yemen just as little as they do.

–Liam Madden, Boston College, majoring in economics and international studies.

The FCC Was Right to Repeal Net Neutrality

Many young people gained their political consciousness after the repeal of net neutrality. They organized rallies and flooded the Federal Communications Commission with comments protesting the decision. Every indication is that people of all stripes in my generation are stridently opposed to the repeal. It is ironic, then, that young people stand to benefit the most from FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s decision.

To succeed in the 21st-century information economy, America needs to build a fast, accessible internet. This task is all the more urgent because China is trying to leapfrog us, investing hundreds of billions of dollars to create a more reliable and expansive internet. Upgrading our internet is analogous to building out the interstate highway system in the 1950s. The interstates were funded by fuel taxes, with the heaviest users paying the most. This was only fair: Those who reap the most gain should shoulder a heavier burden for the cost. The repeal of net neutrality enables a similar dynamic to emerge. Today, Google, Netflix , Amazon, Apple and Facebook account for around 60% of peak internet traffic. Net-neutrality repeal means that internet service providers can charge these deep-pocketed tech companies extra for their heavy usage. The revenue can then be invested in upgrading the quality of the internet, ensuring that the U.S. has the infrastructure it needs to compete in the global economy over the next generation.

–Kiran Sridhar, Stanford University, majoring in economics.

Raise Your Hand If You’re a Social Outcast

“Nobody here is a Trump supporter, right?” Everyone in the room rapidly shakes their heads, as if the harder they shake, the more distance they’ll put between themselves and He Who Must Not Be Named. I shook my head, too—I disapprove of President Trump. But something felt wrong. It was the divisiveness and the air of superiority that irked me. I think opposing views should be voiced. It is hard for me to look into another person’s eyes and think that they are immoral simply because of political differences. Besides, tunnel vision will only exacerbate America’s problems.

–Marla Hiller, Boston University, intends to major in international relations or political science.