The Independent Collegian

We left Toledo feeling drowsy but excited in the wee hours of the morning. Yet, it wasn't until well after dark that we finally arrived in the mountain town of La Esperanza in western Honduras. This past spring break, I had the opportunity to be part of a medical mission team, providing free health care to people in one of the poorest countries of the Americas.

I was in the middle of revising a paper for one of my political science courses the other day when I received a call from one of my closest friends, Ira. "Hey, guess what!" he said immediately. "Edgar Winter Group is coming to Cleveland on March 1!" I didn't even pause to think before responding with "Get tickets, I'll pay you back.

Someone today told me that the banana won't exist in the next 10 years. At first, I hoped this person had his or her facts wrong or was just trying to pull my leg, but apparently it is prophesized - by some scientists from wherever - that the banana will disappear.

I think about my dear Uncle Fred. Well, actually, he's not my uncle; he is my former high school journalism teacher and mentor. During the 1960s when he was in his prime, Uncle Fred was quirky, literate and occasionally encouraging to me and my amateurish attempts at writing.

Sadly a sharp divide often exists between what we promote and what we commit ourselves to in action. It is hard to always hold people to their word, especially when the subject matter is significant and those who are offering pledges are in power. This phenomenon isn't foreign to UT, as oftentimes administrators here will dedicate themselves to a cause or goal in public but, behind closed doors, pursue policies that run counter to these spoken causes or goals.

With the advent of modernity, wars moved from the countryside and into cities and civilians became industrial workers instead of agrarian laborers. Advancing technological trends make war a more efficient convention, sometimes preventing unneeded civilian deaths in populated urban environments with increased accuracy capabilities, other times making civilian deaths more common with increased weapon force.

You see them every day on campus, but you think nothing of it. You turn on the news each night to see brave men and women fighting for each and every citizen of the United States, but you turn the channel. You may have friends and family who are members, but you choose to block out that part of their life.