Print this issueCTS bus riders hit with 60 percent fare increase
College and seminary administrators trade blame over miscommunication
Students who ride The Rapid city bus line to and from Calvin Theological Seminary received a surprise last fall when the 50 cent student discounted fare they were accustomed to paying was abruptly, and without warning, discontinued for CTS students.
Eating, Ellen Davis, and economy
The statistics are staggering, and hit with the jolt of a stun gun: The average American consumes 6,000 calories a day. Industrial farming methods will lead to the complete desertification of the American heartland by 2040. The carcasses of animals slaughtered for food could turn the Grand Canyon into an at-capacity charnel house in six months. Ninety percent of children born after 2000 can expect to succumb to heart disease brought on by over-consumption. Studies have demonstrated that a single microwave dinner has the lethal capacity of two packs of cigarettes.
Ok, I admit it. I made those statistics up. For some reason, the real stats, though just as staggering and certainly no secret, don’t leave us aghast. The gravity of the situation demands an accounting, an analysis, or to use the apropos language of sailors, a “dead reckoning.” Briefly considered, our consumptive habits have deleterious consequences for most every aspect of our lives and the life of the planet.
Book review: The omnivore's dilemma
A natural history of four meals
Students do not always eat as they should. Ramen noodles, PB and J, breakfast cereal, and instant pizzas were standard fare for me in college, with occasional supplements from the canned soup aisle. Maybe you're a regular at the food pantry; I hear the guacamole chips are tasty. Perhaps you shop at the farmers market? If you're married you might eat better - my diet certainly got healthier after I married: less junk and more vegetables.
Where can it be?
A poem by Sherilyn Vandervalk
Conscientious objector
Last quarter, in an all-too-familiar quest to avoid paper writing, I watched the news. Those of you who know me well will recognize the lengths of my scholastic avoidance when I say that I was watching FOX News, no less. I was drawn in by a story about Lt. Ehren Watada. This soldier’s story actively engages the principles debated at the 2006 Synod of the Christian Reformed Church, as the Committee on War and Peace presented the conclusions of their study.
The day I became a Grand Rapidian
I was born in one country (The Netherlands), immigrated to and grew up in another (Canada), and have spent the majority of my adult life in a third (U.S.A.). My professional life has been split between Canada and the U.S. and I have twice deliberately and quite self-consciously changed allegiance by becoming a naturalized citizen; a Canadian in 1969 and an American in 2004. Ask me who or what I am and I pause before answering. My first inclination when asked about my hometown is to say Vancouver, British Columbia where I grew up and my mother and sisters still live.
Editorial: Bus fare fiasco symptomatic of deeper problems
As we reported this week, Calvin Theological Seminary students are paying at least 60 percent more to use the city’s public transportation system, due to no fault of their own. While CTS and college administrators traded barbs about who was responsible, the exchange of blame tells a darker story about relations between the college and the seminary.
Sem Eye: Hickory, dickory, dock, the church mouse ran up the clock!
Proverbs 22:6 teaches us to “train a child in the way he should, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” We all know Solomon, above all the rest of Israel's kings, was marked by his God-given wisdom. When he speaks we do well to listen attentively, especially when our children are listening attentively to us in turn. This point, driven home so beautifully in the Proverbs, should guide us from the earliest days to teach our children the stories and values of the Kingdom of heaven over those of this shabby earth.
Letters to the editor
Weekly letters to the editor