SocietyWatch
Universities resegregating
In an attempt to combat “microaggressions” and “racially insensitive remarks,” an increasing number of universities are adopting a policy of racial segregation.
In September, the University of Southern California honored a request from its Black Student Union to issue a proposal to provide segregated housing as a means of shielding black students from “racially insensitive remarks.”
African-American students on several college campuses have also demanded racially segregated “safe spaces.” University officials are now actively encouraging students to voluntarily segregate themselves in these “safe spaces.” The president of Northwestern University, for example, said that it is understandable that black students would not want white undergraduates joining them in a cafeteria. “We all deserve safe spaces,” he wrote, and “black students had every right to enjoy their lunches in peace.”
Minority student demands for racial segregation intensified at the University of California on Oct. 21, 2016, when students literally formed a human chain to stop white students from getting to class. These demonstrators were caught on video blocking the entrance to Sather Gate at the university’s Berkeley campus while holding banners demanding “safe spaces” segregated by race and gender identity.
Demonstrators reportedly hollered, “Go around!” to white students attempting to walk through, while receiving minority students with calls of, “Let him through!”
Rather than trying to foster dialogue and understanding, university officials are actually encouraging students to protest against “microaggressions” and minor misunderstandings. By fostering a culture of intolerance, these college students and university officials are exacerbating racial tensions that are ready to explode into rioting and violence.
Marijuana wins big on election night
On November 8, voters in California, Maine, Massachusetts and Nevada legalized recreational marijuana. These states joined Colorado, Washington, Oregon and Alaska in approving the psychotropic drug for recreational use.
Voters in Florida, North Dakota, Montana and Arkansas cast a ballot to legalize marijuana for medical use only. Taken together, these new ballot measures mean that marijuana is now legal in some form in 28 states. Opponents of these legalization measures point out that such legalization is creating a popular perception that cannabis is good for your health. A Gallup poll from October shows that 60 percent of Americans now favor legalizing marijuana, despite evidence that the plant contains more than 400 known chemicals, many of which are toxic to the human body.
The amount of tar and carbon monoxide inhaled by those who smoke marijuana is three and five times greater respectively than among tobacco smokers, regardless of tetrahydrocannabinol content. And unlike alcohol, where the ethanol is eliminated within a few hours, marijuana residues can stay in the body for weeks. Marijuana use can also seriously damage respiratory and cardiovascular health, causing chronic coughing, wheezing and bronchitis. Smoking a relatively small amount of marijuana has a similar impact to smoking five to seven times the amount in cigarettes, one after another.
Numerous studies prove that smoking anything is harmful to our lungs. God says we should glorify Him in our bodies: “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20; Revised Standard Version).
Where are the men in America’s workforce?
The official United States unemployment rate stood at 4.9 percent in October 2016, about half of what it was at the height of the Great Recession in 2010. Yet at the same time, 7 million working-age men have simply disappeared from the workforce. They are not counted as unemployed because they are not actively looking for a job.
According to the News Herald, in the decade after World War
Even as these prime working-age men have given up on finding work, women have flooded into the paid-labor market. The proportion of 25-to-54-year-old women in the paid workforce today is double what it was in the late 1940s. One major reason for this change has been an economic shift from “brawn power” to “brain power.” Technology has rendered many agricultural and manufacturing jobs obsolete, while millions of young men have not put in the time and effort to develop skills that would make them employable.
The Bible prophesied that God would take away the great leaders, warriors, judges, teachers, engineers and skilled workers in this end time (Isaiah 3:1-3). The fact that millions of American men are either unwilling or unable to work and support families is a major fulfillment of this prophecy.
