Yeas and Nays

Yea for people trying to make a difference.

Nay for not showing up.

Yea for rocking out to Top 40 hits on your way to work.

Nay to your car heater being broken when it’s 30 degrees outside.

Yea to heat.

Nay to heat when it facilitates a mold infestation under your bed.

Yea to the inauguration. Hopefully, Obama gets down to business and ends discriminatory legislation, like the Defense of Marriage Act.  
Yea to Beyonce singing the national anthem at the inauguration.

Nay that she actually lip-synced it.

Nay to Justin Bieber.

Nay to Justin Bieber again, just so long as you love me.

Yea to the legislature for a “long” four-month session.

Nay to any budget that triggers tuition increases in the Oregon University System.

Nay to noise ordinances. We’re just a bunch of loud, boisterous, drunk college kids vomiting all over the place, what’s the big deal?
Nay to drinking, but of course we know none of you actually drink, so why bother reminding you it’s bad.

Yea to having a job.

Nay to your job keeping you away from the people you care about.

Yea to our Senator, Jeff Merkeley, working to pass real filibuster reform.

Nay to Harry Reid for backing down and offering useless filibuster reforms.

Yea to first loves — there will never be another one like the first.

Nay to bumping into them awkwardly after you haven’t spoken in five years.

Yea to working with people from different backgrounds.

Nay to people misreading things and then it getting really, really awkward.

Yea to being awkward in very professional spaces — awkward is the engine that drives our lives.

Nay to Monday morning walks of shame. Really, children?
Yea to getting butt dialed by important people in the administration on Sunday afternoons.

Nay to all the reading one has to do for class. We just don’t believe it’s important anymore.

Yea to all the Student & Incidental Fee Committee funded services that help keep students safe, happy, healthy and sober.

Nay to students not knowing about so many of these services.

Yea to moderation.

Nay to forgetting and then eating that bag of skittles during a meeting.

Yea to spending time in the woods — skipping along, singing and feeling groovy.

Nay to the awkward looks you get from people in their official REI woods gear as they pass you on the trail.

Yea to the fog lifting. Ignore the tests you have next week that you should study for, go out and enjoy life children. Catch the consumption in the rain and then infect us with your illness during class. Stay frosty, kids.


Editorials serve as means for Barometer editors to offer commentary and opinions on issues both global and local, grand in scale or diminutive. The views expressed here are a reflection of the editorial board’s majority.