Editor’s note: Technically, I’m supposed to steer clear of first person in these editorials because they are meant to represent the opinion of the Publication. But it’s almost the end of the year, and I’ve already broken that rule a few times, and it’s late, and I’m graduating in a week and a half, and…
Author: Mary Beenken
I am a senior English writing major and political science minor at Concordia College, but I originally hail from Fort Collins, Colorado. I have a deep passion for humanitarian aid and the power of the written word. I am currently the Editor-in-Chief of the 2011-2012 Concordian, though on occasion I also write and take pictures.
Dream job: hybrid freelance journalist/human rights lawyer.
BREWing Alone
At first I didn’t notice what was different in the campus organizations I was involved in. Like many small, creeping changes in campus climate, it began slowly: a three-week dip in the number of people who came to meetings, then a general lack of responses when questions were asked. My favorite organizations varied widely in…
Truly Open-Minded
One of the wonderful things about Concordia is the spirit of the liberal education that thrives here: the fostering of critical thinking, the value of broadening the mind, the entertaining of many different ideas and viewpoints. But sometimes it is easy for people who value all of these things to actually begin to look down…
The courage to trust
Earlier this week, the United States woke up to news that three Jewish schoolchildren and one adult had been gunned down in France. At the time this editorial was written, the shooter had not yet been caught, but it was suspected that it was the same man who shot two Muslim soldiers and a French…
DS evacuated during dinner rush
Students and Dining services staff were evacuated during a peak traffic hours tonight when a fire alarm sounded in Knutson Campus Center just after 6:00 p.m. The Moorhead Fire Department responded. According to Dining Room Attendant Pat Matson, the cause of the alarm is as yet unknown. “All we know is there was smoke,” she…
Just one more step
It’s not an altogether uncommon occurance, but something about it stopped me in a new way the other day: I saw somebody throw a plastic bottle in the trash because the recycling bin was all the way across the Maize. And it wasn’t the moral outrage that stopped me (being an ardent environmentalist and loyal…
Placing the blame
Earlier this week, the local news affiliate WDAY covered a home invasion that occured in the house of five students who live near campus. The news report began thus: “A warning and a good reminder for all of us tonight from the Moorhead Police Department and Concordia College Security: Make sure the doors to your…
Academic Humility
The phenomenon of students complaining about their schoolwork is probably older than the phenomenon of schools. It is practically a part of our genetic makeup. Luckily, the long arc of time has allowed most of humanity to come to recognize the benefits of schoolwork— difficult schoolwork especially. It pushes us to become more than individuals,…
Savor the season
Whether it’s Christmas carols, well-known advertisements, or time-honored grumblings about losing the “reason for the season,” December is a time of refrains. Here’s just one to think about: “It’s a busy time of year.” In almost every corner of Western society, December tends to wind up as the time when everyone scrambles to finish pent-up…
Remembering rights
On Tuesday Iceland announced that it voted to recognize Palestine as an independent state, making it the first Western European country to do so. If you follow international politics at all, it should come as no surprise to you that this is a major development. The issue of Palestinian statehood is obviously a divisive one…