"Reduce your carbon footprint!" "Go Green!" "Wind energy!" Save money and save the planet!"
It seems that these slogans supporting environmental causes are everywhere nowadays. This week our reporters followed a couple stories on the environment. The stories focused on air quality and even how having hens can help you save money and help the planet.
Being an environmental studies and journalism major, I believe that the attention to these stories by the news media reflects the interest of the country in environmental issues. From small student-run media outlets like The Rockbridge Report to The CBS Evening News, journalists are running stories on alternative energy and other environmental issues.
Public interest is needed to spark a change in our energy use and our environment, and the public surely has begun to be interested. And not just in a superficial way. Going green has become fashionable. Cars, clothing, electronics, you name it -- if it's green, it's most certainly cool.
The new MacBook by Apple is advertised as the most green laptop on the market. What does that mean? Who knows? But it sounds cool. If this keeps up, the environment can change without people even knowing it, and that's a good thing for all of us.
- Michelle Boniface
I guess it serves the government right for trying to do a good thing. It literally did a reverse Robin-Hood -- took money from the hands of hard-working taxpayers who are losing their jobs and facing foreclosure -- and put it in the hands of greedy business executives. Before the check was even signed, they arrived by private jet to make the case that they can't afford to keep business afloat.
Now all you hear about is the exorbitant bonuses executives are still receiving after having been bailed out.
Then again, not all businesses that received bailout money continue to spend wastefully. Wells Fargo for example -- which benefited from a $25 billion federal rescue -- canceled a 12-night luxury retreat in Las Vegas for its staff. Now let's think about this for a second. The relative cost of this "luxury retreat" compared to a $25 billion-dollar loan... is trifling! When CEOs start pulling the Sarah Palin, and by that I mean selling company jets on eBay, then I'll be satisfied.
While we wait for such a phenomenon to occur, word on the street -- Wall Street, that is -- is that greedy executives are finally going to get what's coming to them. Pres. Obama has announced a plan to cap the salaries of executives whose companies received bail-out money at $500,000.
Now that's what I'm talkin' 'bout.
My only question is: How far down the pole will these salary caps go? At some of the bailed-out banks, traders and bankers make more than the big boys on top receive.
Now of course, adversaries are devising a slew of cockamamie excuses to challenge a cap on executive salaries. My favorite appeared on CNN earlier this week. Wolf and Andy were discussing how opponents believe a salary cap will drain the 'bail-out sector' of talented managers.
Because why would a talented manager work for a company where multi-million dollar bonuses are no longer offered???
If by "talented" these people mean those who have received the highest salaries in the last decade, then the "talented managers" are the ignoramuses responsible for our current state of recession. I'm willing to bet that the statistical correlation between pay and performance of executives at these levels of corporate America is slim to none.
While I find the continued greed on Wall Street atrocious, I have to admit that I'm somewhat sympathetic to those who stand to lose millions with an executive salary cap. Really now, how would you feel if all of a sudden your annual income was missing three zeros after the comma? Granted, these big wheelers weren't earning the salaries of the average Joe six-pack (another one for the Palin fans). For Joe, an annual salary of $500,000 is more than plenty to live a pleasant life.
But for a business tycoon who's been pocketing millions, $500,000 is chump-change. More seriously, when you've living an extravagant lifestyle and are suddenly unable to afford it, you stand to lose important items like your home and car.
Perhaps 'mansion and yachts' are more accurate in this case....
At any rate, I think a salary cap will provide Wall Street with a much-needed "corporate cleansing." If these pay caps help corporations get rid of people who work there only because they receive millions each year, then Obama is doing these corporations a serious favor. They'll actually start employing honest, ambitious leaders who want to do something other than line their own pockets as fast as possible.
One can only hope.
-Alisha Laventure
Sunday's Super Bowl was not supposed to be good.
Of the teams assembling in Tampa--the Arizona Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers--neither were the Cinderellas of the season, nor the dominating powerhouses or sentimental favorites (sorry, Manning brothers).
And at that, the Steelers' star wide receiver walked onto the field with a bum knee, while a lackluster Cards defense lined up to meet them.
The nation was coming off one of the coldest weeks of the year so far.
Even Sports Illustrated and Playboy canceled their Super Bowl parties. The Super Bowl? Without an SI party?
But the second the Vince Lombardi Trophy found its way into the hands of quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and the rest of the Steelers, the exclamations began: This was the best Super Bowl. Ever.
What happened? How can such a lackluster exposition give way to such a climax and even more exhilarating denouement?
There's no answer; just the facts:
The second quarter ended with a drive-stopping interception run back for a 100-yard touchdown by the Steelers' James Harrison.
The Cards' first lead of the game came by way of a 64-yard touchdown pass to Larry
Fitzgerald with 2:37 left in the game.
The last Pittsburgh offensive drive ended with an impeccable perfect throw-perfect catch combination in the Cardinals' end zone ... and victory.
Most importantly, America exhaled this Sunday. Everyone who tuned in got caught up in it, not just the 71,101 people at Heinz South Stadium.
The emotionalism this game ended up capturing just proves that you can still expect the unexpected; that what is predicted is not always what is delivered.
And now, when few things allow us to focus on something besides the state of the economy, that is something increasingly important to remember. We can barely get our morning coffee without hearing about this downturn's latest victim.
The Super Bowl shocked and surprised. It made some of us cheer, some of us cry.
So I'm going to give the advice that might get me excommunicated from the journalistic world: This weekend, put your newspaper down. Get your nose out of the newest article lamenting the absurd unemployment rate and miserable budget cuts. Put on your coat and gloves and go enjoy yourselves -- and each other. Walk around your downtown, meander down Main Street. We live in a beautiful place with great people.
You might want to wait until Saturday, though. The forecast says Lexington's going to hit 62 degrees.
-Monica Chinn