Indiana Daily Student
OPINION
Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017 idsnews.com
Editors Dylan Moore and Zack Chambers opinion@idsnews.com
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EDITORIAL BOARD
ON YOUR MIND
The right way to use personality tests In the last 10 years, I have been subject to many different personality tests. From the Meyers-Briggs in high school to the Keirsey Temperament Sorter in Kelley School of Business’ freshman branding class, I have been fascinated with people’s ability to sort all of humanity into neat categories and to make seemingly accurate judgments based on those categories. But I have not seen many people use personality tests to fulfill any kind of productive purpose in their lives. Personality tests should be used as tools to understand oneself and grow further toward one’s potential. Personality tests tend to have the same format: Ask a person several questions about values and priorities, use that test to put person in one of several categories, make dozens of sweeping claims about person based on that category. I find the personality tests accurate and a little scary, but they tend to end with feel-good messages about the potential of the specific category and all the great people who were also in the category. This may be because people only want to hear about the potential they have, and not about the problems they might have getting there. Most of the times I have taken personality tests, I have taken them with others. Either in classrooms or with groups of people I am working with, I hear many of the same phrases. “Wow this is so accurate,” “This is totally me,” “Hah, I’m the same as Abraham Lincoln.” In my experience, very rarely does anyone point out a flaw they have, focus on the section about potential weaknesses, or even address that there are negatives to their personality
STEVEN REINOEHL is a sophomore in business.
type. And why should they? It’s no fun to have some test point out what we do poorly. However, if we want to get any sort of fulfillment out of these very accurate tests, we need to be able to look at our problems openly and honestly. It is human to run away from the bad parts of who we are, but it is far from productive. John Maxwell, one of the most respected experts on leadership and growth in the world, talks about problems and how they are actually opportunities for growth. He says that problems allow us to grow better than anything else because they force us to change ourselves to deal with the problem, which better prepares us for the things we will encounter in the future. One of my favorite quotes is by Napoleon Hill in his book “Think and Grow Rich.” He says, “Handicaps can be converted into stepping stones on which one may climb toward some worthy goal, unless they are accepted as obstacles and used as alibis.” If we viewed our problems as stepping-stones toward growth, we would see only opportunities in our daily lives. Personality tests can be a great way to identify these flaws and problems, but only if they are used as tools for growth. I challenge you to go online and take a personality test this week. See all the potential you have because of who you are, but also recognize that the flaws can either propel you toward your potential, or forever hold you back from it. sbreinoe@umail.iu.edu
ILLUSTRATION BY AUSTIN VANSCOIK | IDS
A responsible gas tax plan Indiana House shows a responsible plan for road funding’s future Last week, the Indiana House of Representatives took a hard vote to pass a long term road funding bill. The legislative package the House voted on, while not a final law, will raise $1.2 billion annually for long term road construction and repair funding. The proposed plan would be funded by a 10 cent per-gallon increase in the state gas tax with automatic adjustments for inflation. The plan also includes a $15 vehicle registration fee, and a $150 registration fee for electric vehicles. The Editorial Board supports the House’s decision to create a smart, long term funding plan for our roads. The Hoosier state calls itself the “Crossroads of America” and our ability to participate in a global econ-
omy depends on the quality of our infrastructure, most importantly our roads. The need to raise funding to invest in our roads has been apparent for some time. New, more fuel efficient cars have lowered revenues from gas taxes collected to fund road construction and the level of the gas tax has not been adjusted for inflation in almost 15 years. Instead of fixing this issue last year, the Statehouse put together a one-time, $800 million dollar fix that acted as a band-aid rather than a true solution to the problem. The package passed this year deals with the problems last year’s session did not. The new fees fairly assess the tax on those who use the roads. If you buy gas, you pay the tax. While at first the $150 electric
vehicle registration fee may seem strange, since electric vehicle owners use the same roads as combustion engine drivers. However, they do not pay the same gas tax. It makes sense EV owners have to pay a larger one time fee to account for their fair share. The combination of gas tax increases and registration fees fulfills the state’s long term needs and fixing the gas tax to inflation ensures that such a politically charged issue does not come up for debate every year. This saves Indiana’s parttime legislature time and money, and allows our representatives to focus on other concerns beyond road funding. The measure did not pass without opposition. Far right groups, ideologically opposed
to any sort of tax increase, railed against the law. On the other side of the fence, Democrats favored dipping into the state’s reserves and raising corporate taxes instead. Both these positions are understandable, but a true long term funding plan and common sense governance demanded new revenue sources. On the other hand, dipping into the state’s reserves threaten our AAA bond rating and would put the state on shakier fiscal footing in case of another recession. The measure is likely to see change in senate, but the core of responsible user fees to create a long term roads plan for Indiana is the first step to making sure Indiana has the vital infrastructure it needs to stay competitive.
BLABBERMOUTH
GETTING IN THE GROOVE
Finally, a black Bachelorette
Trump, stop attacking the media
It’s no secret that “The Bachelor” franchise has a race problem. In the combined 33 seasons of “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette,” the only title star with any claim to diversity has been the blonde-haired, blue-eyed Venezuelan Juan Pablo Galavis. That is about to change, however, as producers announced last week that the upcoming season of “The Bachelorette” will star Rachel Lindsay, a black lawyer from Texas. The decision to cast a person of color in the title position — or indeed, to allow a person of color to make it beyond episode three of the show — is long overdue. Generally speaking, people of color are few and far between when it comes to the reality presented by “The Bachelor” producers. Latinas are all but absent from the show, as are Asian contestants. Black contestants are often featured on the show, usually present as two or three numbers of each season’s cast, but almost all are eliminated before the halfway point, if not sooner. Of course, there have been a few exceptions.
Catherine Guidici, who is of Filipino descent, won Sean Lowe’s 2013 season of “The Bachelor.” Caila Quinn, who is also part Filipino, was a popular finalist in Ben Higgins’ 2016 season, but was controversially passed over for the title of The Bachelorette. In Andi Dorfman’s 2014 season of “The Bachelorette,” fan favorite Marquel Martin, who is black, made it just past the halfway mark before being eliminated. After his elimination, Martin was not considered for the next Bachelor. Instead the opportunity was given to Chris Soules, a white farmer from Iowa whose most interesting characteristic was that his hometown didn’t even have a Walmart. “The Bachelor” has never been and likely never will be known for progressive viewpoints. After all, 25 women competing to marry a man they’ve never met isn’t exactly a triumph for modern feminism. But the fact that it’s taken producers this long to invest in the stories of people of color is disgraceful. I hope that the selection of Lindsay marks a turning point for the show, both because she diversifies the cast
BECCA DAGUE is a senior in English
and because she appears to be the kind of woman I’m excited to root for. To put it delicately, many of the women in “Bachelor” history have not been careerfocused women. But as the daughter of a federal judge appointed by Bill Clinton, as well as a high-powered attorney in her own right, Lindsay is smart, capable, independent and successful. In short, she’s a far cry from the usual weepy-eyed Bachelorettes crying into their cocktails. With the announcement of Lindsay, the show appears to be stepping toward diversifying both its cast and the love plots viewers see on the show. Maybe it means “The Bachelor” franchise is finally getting a little more progressive — or, at least, as progressive as a show like “The Bachelor” could ever be. Or maybe it just means “Bachelor” producers have finally realized we live in the 21st century. No matter the reason, the change is long overdue. rjdague@indiana.edu
On Feb. 17, President Trump sent out a tweet asserting that the “fake” news media — which, according to him, includes The New York Times, NBC News, ABC, CBS and CNN — is “the enemy of the American people.” This is deeply troubling to me for several reasons. First, it’s perfectly fine for our elected leaders to hold members of the media accountable for their reporting. In fact, I think it’s important for them to call out bias in news coverage and reporting. It keeps the system working the way it should. But that’s a two-way street, and it’s one that Trump doesn’t seem to understand. It’s the job of the media to hold him accountable for his actions, too. He seems to equate the media accurately reporting his actions and quoting him with the media attacking him. It feels unnecessary to point this out, but those two things are not the same. They are, in fact, quite different from each other. Honest reporting is not an attack on anyone. Additionally, this is
worrisome because Trump has been gradually building up his attack on the media. Do not forget, during the primaries Trump promised to “open up” the libel laws so it would be easier to sue news outlets. More recently, he’s referred to the media as “the opposition party,” and called it “the enemy of the American people”. This is entirely different territory, more dangerous than we have seen before. Perhaps Carl Bernstein — you know, the journalist who exposed one of the biggest political scandals ever, Watergate, during the Nixon administration — put it best when he said in response to Trump’s tweet, “Donald Trump is demonstrating an authoritarian attitude and inclination that shows no understanding of the role of the free press.” How apt. In framing the media not only as his personal enemy but as the enemy of the entire country, Trump is attempting to delegitimize all possible criticism of him and the actions of his administration. Many people I know have simply begun to discount anything
ANNA GROOVER is a freshman in English.
Trump says via Twitter. I think this is a dangerous attitude to adopt. Obviously, public figures often have staffers manning their social media accounts, but I think it’s safe for us to assume that most ideas being espoused in his tweets are his, pure and unfiltered. I believe that his tweets are emblematic of everything we should be fearful of: his temper, his ego and, as Bernstein pointed out, the authoritarian impulse that manifests itself in him when those first two things are not totally satisfied. Lastly, we should be disheartened that our president — the person who should champion the ideals upon which our country was founded — is vigorously attempting to discredit the press. Freedom of the press is just one of the institutions that has allowed our country to expand and flourish in the way that it has. That’s something we need to protect — not attack. acgroove@umail.iu.edu @anna_groover
A NOTE FROM THE EDITORIAL BOARD The Editorial Board is made up of the Opinion section editors and columnists. Each editorial topic is selected and discussed by the Board until we reach a consensus, and a member of the board volunteers to write the article. The opinions expressed by the Editorial Board do not necessarily represent the opinions of the IDS news staff, student body, faculty or staff members or the Board of Trustees. SPRING 2017 EDITORIAL BOARD Dylan Moore, Zack Chambers, Kaitlynn Milvert, Miranda Garbaciak, Becca Dague, Neeta Patwari, Anna Groover, Maddy Klein, Emma Getz, Colin Dombrowski, Jessica Karl, Steven Reinoehl, Austin VanScoik, Julia Bourkland, Kathryn (Katie) Meier, Lucas Robinson, Sam Reynolds, Mercer Suppiger, Brian Gamache, Justin Sexton
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