The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta recently published findings showing the "life expectancy" of Americans has dropped in part because deaths by suicide and drug abuse have increased. While one might receive such news with keen interest, this writer received it with something approaching disbelief.
At the risk of being labeled a "life expectancy denier," I shall here venture forth with alacrity and even some recklessness, as I see no reason a mere statistical construct should be deemed one whit meaningful, at least sufficiently meaningful to affect a single life.
Getting rid of the campus police anonymous tip line and severing the university's relationship with town police were among the demands of about 200 graduate students who marched through the University of Massachusetts at Amherst campus on Thursday afternoon.
The campus police tip line "targets people of color" and the town police cooperation with UMass officials "encourages highly punitive University measures against students for any number of nonviolent/minor infractions and has somehow seemingly left racist terrorizers free of any meaningful response from UMass," organizers said in a written statement, according to MassLive.com.
