![]() BY SAMUEL STEVENS Staff Writer Salisbury University service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega (APO) conducted a collection for troops overseas at the North Salisbury Wal-Mart on Nov. 15 to show men and women in uniform that the ‘home front’ appreciates their service as well as going in harm’s way to defend the nation. "It’s just a nice way to show them that we care and appreciate all they have done," Alpha Phi Omega's Public Representative Emily Outtarac said. The items included necessities, such as soap, shampoo and deodorant as well as gum and granola bars. APO completed the drive by working with the local Salisbury community and Maryland’s Operation We Care to raise supplies for the troops. In addition to donating items, the group also accepted cash donations to buy care packages. APO’s goal was to send about 800 packages to the troops in the Middle East. Operation We Care has been active in Salisbury and Maryland for the past four years, and according to APO advisor Claire Williams has always been successful. The fraternity also had two bake sales the week leading up to the drive to donate to the troops. Between the bake sales and the drive, APO raised $700 for the troops along with the donated items. “We’re raising morale and (giving them) a taste of home,” Williams said. Besides drives and donations, SU students also assisted current military personnel and veterans on campus through the Student Military and Veterans Association. The SMVA assists veterans and dependents in transition from military to university life. Those students interested in taking a more active role in the service can join Salisbury’s Reserves Officers Training Corps unit on campus. ROTC involves a classroom component as well as training activities off campus. Students participate in land navigation, infantry exercises, as well as physical conditioning. Cadets in the program graduate as a commissioned officer on active duty in the Army or part time in the Reserve or National Guard. Off campus community groups are also a way for SU students to support the troops. The American Legion and Sons of the American Legion is open to veterans or the children of veterans, respectively. The organization is a non-partisan advocacy group focused on supporting former members of the military and promoting American values of democracy and community service. BY SAMUEL STEVENS
Staff Writer 1,500 American soldiers are to be sent to Iraq to serve as security and advisory forces for the Iraqi Army in order to fight Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), and Salisbury University students have mixed opinions on the decision. The bulk of these forces would be fighting in the Anbar province of Iraq which borders Syria and Saudi Arabia. This expands the current mission of U.S. personnel from the current focus in Baghdad and Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan region. “I agree with the decision,” SU student Sam Russel said. “It kind of has to be done.” The U.S. has been currently pursuing an airstrike campaign against the Muslim rebels in addition to advisory roles on the ground. “Assuming it’s the right course of action, (the president will) just have to send more and more,” student Ben Sonenberg said, “and we’ll be in another mess.” The strikes have deterred, but not reversed, the ISIS offensive in Iraq and the Iraqi army has been struggling to fight against Islamic rebels. The Anbar province bordering Syria is going to be another major center of U.S. advisory and security operations. The Anbar province was heavily contested during the Iraq War where U.S. forces fought a protracted battle in the city of Fallujah. President Barack Obama has also asked for an additional $5 billion to fight the Islamic State rebels, with $1.6 billion of that going to arming and training the Iraqi armed forces. Officially, the 3,000 additional U.S. ground troops would not be engaged in direct combat operations against the jihadists. Student Katie Nizich is concerned about the troops themselves. “A lot of them were already deployed and have scars from being there,” she said. The Islamic State jihadists, while fighting the Iraqi government, are simultaneously one of many rebel groups fighting the Syrian government as the country is in a civil war. The government of Syria is currently considered an enemy of the U.S., as well. Congress officially authorized aid to the Syrian rebels in September, and a New York Times article from January revealed that the CIA had been arming and training Syrian rebels against the Assad regime in Jordan. ISIS, along with fighting governments has targeted Iraqi minorities including Christians who have mostly been displaced by radical Muslims and who were given the choice to convert or face a tax to the Islamic State. Significant numbers of Christians were killed or displaced after the capture of the city of Mosul, where many Christians lived. The London Telegraph published a leaked video revealing that the radical fighters are buying and selling sex slaves from the Yazidis, a religious minority also. Journalists have been another target of the jihadists, as 12 Iraqi journalists as well as several western journalists, including the deceased James Foley and Steven Sotloff, have been taken and executed by Islamic State fighters. The news of renewed U.S. involvement in Iraq comes after a major defeat for the President and his party in the mid-term elections. A recent Gallup poll showed that President Obama has a 54 percent disapproval rating, while a poll taken by Defense One revealed that Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel has a 26 percent approval rating among U.S. national security professionals and troops. However, even with the major victory for Republicans in the midterm elections, Congress’ approval rating sat at 14 percent just a month before the elections, according the Gallup. Even with the overwhelming disapproval of political leaders, American approval for military operations against the Islamic State is 60 percent according to a September poll. BY SAMEUL STEVENS
Staff Writer The Salisbury City Council passed a plan to redistrict the city after a 3-2 vote, increasing city council districts from two to five and in doing so Salisbury University effectively gained a district, meaning that students could vote after the thirty day residency requirement. Councilman Tim Spies opposed the plan to change the districting, saying university students are not ‘true’ residents of the city. Spies explained that his “no” vote was based on special interest groups controlling city elections. “Even though the district divisions purpose is to make the playing field level for minorities, I fear that the (well-known) concept of divide and conquer will follow,” he said. Spies also said his disagreement with the plan is not based on the presence of SU as a significant bloc of voters, but on the overall capacity for outside actors playing a role in city elections. Spies specifically mentioned the political clout of Salisbury’s landlords. “In the 2011 elections, fully two thirds of the candidates were mainly funded by landlord dollars, candidates who appeared from the woodwork, never before engaging in city politics,” Spies said. The move from two large districts to five smaller districts may remedy the councilman’s fears of divide and conquer, but that will only be tested with the 2015 municipal elections. City districting was last changed in 2012 after demographic shifts noted in the 2010 US Census. Currently, District One is an African American majority with two representatives, while the rest of the city is in District Two with three representatives. The plan was intended to guarantee at least two minority representatives on the city council to better represent the interests of District One voters. The new districts will have roughly equal numbers, with at least 50 percent of the population minorities. The Maryland chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the National Association for the Advancements of Colored People supported the 2012 redistricting based on its ability to provide minority representation in the city, according to a letter sent from the ACLU to the Salisbury City Council in April 2012. The letter also states single-member, at large districts limit minority representation in municipal districts, owing to “vote dilution” from the at-large system, something intended to be remedied by the new districting scheme. Mayor Jim Ireton said on his website, “Neighborhoods such as Doverdale, Princeton Homes, Wicomico Village and Moss Hill have become a melting pot of diversity…With time and these new election lines, that diversity will be represented on the Salisbury City Council.” |
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