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Zombie Nativity Scene

A Cincinnati, Ohio suburb is fighting over a zombie themed nativity scene at a private residence. Jasen Dixon and his family operate a haunted house for Halloween, and used some of their zombie decorations to create a unique nativity scene in their front yard for the second year in a row.

Last year, the family was in hot water with township officials for not having the proper permits for the large manger. This year, the Dixon’s applied for a permit, but their appeal was rejected and they have incurred fines from the township as a result. The Dixon’s realized that by deconstructing the roof of the manger, the scene would no longer qualify as a building and they avoid further fines. Although the fines have stopped, the criticism has not.

Religious groups have left numerous notes at the scene, saying that the zombie depiction is disrespectful to God. One note claims “God frowns upon the manger scene”. However, the Dixon’s send their son to Catholic school and defend against claims that they are anti-Christian.

Jasen Dixon sees the display as harmless, saying We use this for our family craft time”. The Dixon’s created a Facebook page for their scene and has gained many fans. The page has received many messages of support from fans in the Cincinnati area and worldwide. One commenter states, “I don’t personally like it but it’s a free country and for that, I support this family’s expression of freedom!” and many other posts mirror this sentiment. Some humorously share references to The Walking Dead and others say the display would be more appropriate at Halloween, or even Easter (when Jesus rose from the dead). The Dixon’s are also collecting donations for various causes including offsetting the fines that they incurred, building a bigger and better scene next year, and sending money to local charities.

The Prindle Post’s Greatest Hits 2015

We’ll be taking a short break for the holidays, but we’ll return the first week in January with more engaging ethics content. Until we see you again, take a look at our list of popular posts and catch up on articles you might have missed this year.

  1. “Resilience, an ideal that hurts more than it helps” by Robin James
  2. “So I’m a racist. What do I do now?” by Sara Protasi
  3. “The Empty Chair: White Male Privilege at DePauw” by Conner Gordon
  4. “The Nonsense of Beating Sense into Kids” by Eric Thomas Weber
  5. “Long Distance Information, Give Me Memphis, Tennessee” by Chris Hager
  6. “Women’s Resilience and Post-Feminist Sexism” by Robin James
  7. “What A Flag has to do with Justice” by Eric Thomas Weber
  8. “American History and the Ethics of Memory” by Chris Hager
  9. “Technology and Police Brutality” by Amy Brown
  10. “From Outrage to Integration” by Bob Fischer
  11. “Convicted Felons in Professional Sports” by Amy Brown
  12. “The Value of Suffering” by Sara Protasi
  13. “Why Act When It Doesn’t Make a Difference?” by Bob Fischer
  14. “Using History to Make Slavery History” by Chris Hager
  15. “The Poetry of ISIS: Is It Literature?” by Conner Gordon
  16. “Education and a Free Society: A Libertarian Perspective” by Pamela J. Hobart
  17. “Adderall Aftermath: The Implications of James Stewart’s Supercross Ban” by Rachel Gutish
  18. “Ethical Responsibilities of DePauw Graduates” by Rachel Hannebutt
  19. “Facebook’s Online Redlining” by Conner Gordon
  20. “The Vaccine Debate: Where Do We Go From Here?” by Ashley Kennedy
  21. “Ethics of Student Choice: DePauw’s ‘New’ Meal Plan” by Rachel Hannebutt
  22. “The Ethics of Discourse on Clinton” by Victoria Houghtalen
  23. “A Student Perspective on Trigger Warnings” by Conner Gordon
  24. “Obama seen as ‘enemy’ to press freedom” by Jeff McCall
  25. “Can Someone’s Dignity Be Taken Away?” by Kathleen Whipple
  26. “Diversity in Children’s Books: A White Author’s Quandry” by Claudia Mills
  27. “How Does Capitalism Incentivize?” by Adriel M. Trott
  28. “When Is It Rational to Trust a Stranger?” by Jason D’Cruz
  29. “An Expectation of White Allies” by Taylor Jones
  30. “Where Does the Confederate Flag Belong Today?” by Midori Kawaue
  31. “Freedom of Association and Right-to-Work Laws” by Peter Vallentyne

Thanks for reading! Let us know which posts you liked the best!

Call them Daesh: Names, Meaning and ISIS

One thing that I noticed when I first heard media coverage of an Islamist group rising to power in Syria was that it was continually referred to as “the group calling itself ISIS” or “the group known as ISIL”.  If it had been one media outlet or one program, it might have slipped by.  But it wasn’t: it was a standardized fixture of official coverage of the group.

In recent months, particularly since the deadly Paris attacks that claimed the lives of 129, there has been a seemingly strategic shift to the word “Daesh” to describe the organization.  Why does this matter?  And what impact does it hold for the future of Western relations to the Middle East?

Continue reading “Call them Daesh: Names, Meaning and ISIS”

What We’re Reading: December 17, 2015

Focus Fracas (Chronicle of Higher Education)
by Frank Furedi
“Serious reading, I’m told, has become a lost art. Indeed, the precarious status of people’s attention has acquired the status of conventional truth.”

The Necessary Recklessness of Campus Protests (Atlantic)
by Nshira Turkson
“Over the past few weeks, college students in the U.S. and abroad have turned into activists, demonstrating against racial injustice on their campuses. Critiques, of course, pursue these protests. A large portion focus on behaviors they term reckless.”

When 8-Year Olds Kill: What Happens To The Youngest Murderers (Vocativ)
by James King
“Juveniles who commit murder can also still spend their entire lives behind bars, even when parole is an option, at the discretion of probation boards who’d approve their appeals for release.”

In San Bernardino, an Epidemic of Questionable Arrests at School (KQED)
by By Susan Ferriss and Amy Isackson
“Muniz’s arrest in November 2012 sounds extreme, but it was hardly isolated. In fact, he was one of tens of thousands of juveniles arrested by school police in San Bernardino County over the last decade. The arrests were so numerous in this high-desert region known as the Inland Empire that they surpassed arrests of juveniles by municipal police in some of California’s biggest cities.”

What We’re Reading: December 10, 2015

29 Scholarly Societies’ Statement on ‘Campus Carry’ (Inside Higher Ed)
“Twenty-nine scholarly societies on Monday issued a joint statement opposing the Texas “campus carry” law that will significantly expand the right to carry arms on public university campuses.”

How Mark Zuckerberg’s Altruism Helps Himself (New York Times)
by Jesse Eisinger [PRO PUBLICA]
“Mark Zuckerberg did not donate $45 billion to charity. You may have heard that, but that was wrong. Here’s what happened instead: Mr. Zuckerberg created an investment vehicle. Sorry for the slightly less sexy headline.”

What the Hell Just Happened on MSNBC and CNN? (Atlantic)
by David A. Graham
“Reporters were given free rein to walk through an apartment that is an important part of the investigation, and they were allowed to handle what one would expect to be evidence. Police didn’t appear to know the media tour was going on.”

Trigger Warning Skepticism (Inside Higher Ed)
by Colleen Flaherty
“A majority of respondents — 62 percent — said they believed trigger warnings have or will have a negative effect on academic freedom, and 45 percent think warnings have a negative effect on classroom dynamics. But 17 percent — what the report calls a substantial minority — were favorable to trigger warnings, and many of those said they see them as a sign of respect that builds trust between a professor and students, and helps students better engage with difficult material.”

“Political identity is fair game for hatred”: how Republicans and Democrats discriminate (Vox)
by Ezra Klein and Alvin Chang
“But even as American voters remained relatively centrist, they seemed to be getting angrier and more fearful of the other side.”

How Obama Thinks About Terrorism (Atlantic)
by Peter Beinart
“While Republicans think ISIS is strong and growing stronger, Obama thinks it’s weak and growing weaker.”

Supreme Court Justices’ Comments Don’t Bode Well for Affirmative Action (New York Times)
by Adam Liptak
“In a remark that drew muted gasps in the courtroom, Justice Antonin Scalia said that minority students with inferior academic credentials may be better off at ‘a less advanced school, a slower-track school where they do well.'”

Will Genetic Screening Lead to Designer Babies?

“Designer babies.” The term has developed a stigma around the world as a result of negative sentiments toward the alteration of a fetus’ genetic makeup in order to create more favorable characteristics. The majority of genetic screening and alteration today has to do with the elimination and detection of serious diseases, not cosmetic characteristics. As technology improves, however, many people worry about how genetic screening and alteration will negatively affect the future of the human race. Discrimination, bias, and partiality are all factors that must be considered when dealing with altering an individual’s unique personal characteristics.

Continue reading “Will Genetic Screening Lead to Designer Babies?”

Drug Testing at Music Festivals

The prevalence of drug usage at many music festivals is not a secret, but how should we care for those who choose to take them? Recent drug-related deaths at music festivals around the world have sparked a call to action. But instead of banning drugs altogether, one Australian doctor suggests drug testing to promote safer usage among festival-goers. The process would involve festival attendees visiting an on-site laboratory to submit a sample of the drug they plan on taking. Workers would take 20-45 minutes to test the ingredients in the drugs and then pass along the information to the customer.  Those who choose to take drugs will then know exactly what they are putting into their bodies. Similar testing techniques are already being implemented at select music festivals in parts of Europe and North America.

Continue reading “Drug Testing at Music Festivals”

The Ethical Aftermath of the Planned Parenthood Shooting

On Friday, November 27th, a man named Robert Lewis Dear Jr. entered a Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs, Colorado, with a semiautomatic rifle. He killed three people: a police officer and two civilians. After hours of a violent standoff with the police, Dear was eventually brought into custody. Though mass shootings have garnered much public discussion recently (after news surfaced that we have had more than one mass shooting per day in 2015), the Planned Parenthood shooting has received a particularly high amount of media attention.

There are several ethical components brought forth by the shooting. Two notable ones are: 1) Should society blame violence on an atmosphere of verbal hostility? 2) Should society view Planned Parenthood as the face of abortion?

Many have argued, like Washington Post Columnist Ruth Marcus, that, “Republicans deserve some blame for the Planned Parenthood shooting.” Marcus argues that, “words- extreme language and overheated representations- have consequences” and that the heated rhetoric that she argues come from some pro-life Republicans inspired Robert Dear’s attack on Planned Parenthood. Father Frank Pravone, the national director of Priests for Life, rejected this accusation in his Op-Ed for Fox News that the pro-life movement would support any violent action. He argues that though the pro-life community consistently condemns all attacks at abortion facilities, they still receive most of the blame. He also rejects the accusation that describing abortion as “child killing” is creating a climate of violence. It is his belief that abortion is murder and to change his language would be abandoning his lifelong attempt to protect unborn babies.

This argument over language leads to the next question. Is the focus on Planned Parenthood as the face of the abortion issue legitimate? Both pro-choice and pro-life advocates seem to have an interest in deflating and inflating, respectively, the importance of Planned Parenthood in regards to abortion services. For example, Planned Parenthood reports that only 3% of their services provided are abortions and have been widely criticized for distorting their numbers to arrive at this number. Similarly, some pro-life advocates responded with a claim that 94% of Planned Parenthood’s pregnancy services are abortions, a claim that is similarly criticized. However, a third party fact checker, Politifact, says the most accurate statistic is that an estimated 12% of Planned Parenthood customers receive abortion. Do these examples of inflating/deflating Planned Parenthood’s abortion services show that we have a tendency to alter the truth to benefit a specific political agenda?

Can language incite violence? If it does, is it ethical to place limitations on language? How do we address our tendency as people to distort facts in order to benefit politically?

It’s Time to Rethink Our Water Use

Originating high in the Rockies north of Boulder, the Colorado River travels 1,450 miles to Mexico. It is a symbolic keystone of the American Southwest, known for carving the Grand Canyon and surrounding landscapes. The reality is that its water is essential for everyday life in the arid states of Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming. 33 million people depend on it for their primary water supply. It water supports farms, ranches, cities, suburbs, tourism and a $26 billion recreation industry.

While it known for its beauty and symbolism, it is also famous for the ways in which it has been exploited. As written in The Colorado River: Flowing Through Conflict, “It is the most contested, played-upon, silt-laden, diverted, engineered, dammed, stored (four times its volume and one-fifth of its length is held in reservoirs), farmed with, and metro-dependent river in America.” 

For millions of years, the Colorado River ran to the Sea of Cortez, yet this came to halt in 1998. Due to an increasing population and a changing climate, demand for its water is way higher than its supply. 12 major dams and countless aqueducts divert its water for a wide array of uses. Among the largest perpetrators is the agriculture industry, which uses unsustainable techniques to convert desert soil into food production- ensuring that us Hoosiers have unlimited access to spinach in January and February. Similarly, there are countless golf courses and backyard pools in Arizona and New Mexico- clear examples of how were are not working within the constraints of the environment. I would argue that the over-exploitation of the Colorado River is reflective of a trend of unsustainable water usage in our country, and highlights certain ethical questions surrounding environmental exploitation and climate change.

While it is true that water is essential for the life of every human, the ways in which this resource is used varies greatly throughout the world. The average American uses about 2,000 gallons of water a day in the food they eat, energy they use, and products they buy. This is two times the global average. While millions of people spend a significant part of every day transporting the water they will use for hydration, cooking, and hygiene, others flick on a faucet and have immediate access to cold and clean water. There is an apparent disconnect in more developed societies from natural resources essential to daily life, and their origins. In her article, “The Missing Piece: A Water Ethic,” Sandra Postel argues that, “in our technologically sophisticated world, we no longer grasp the need for the wild river, the blackwater swamp, or even the diversity of species collectively performing nature’s work.” We have become so “sophisticated” as a society that we no longer value the importance of the river, just not for providing ecological services, but for sustaining our own human life. This disconnect may have extreme consequences in the coming years.

Ethical concerns about water management, highlighted by the exploitation of the Colorado River, center around stewardship and equity. The Tragedy of the Commons may be a beneficial tool in understanding part of the problem with water as a public resource. In this case, rational acts in self interest are irrational and harmful to the needs of the greater community. Postel further asserts that “our stewardship of water will determine not only the quality but the staying power of human societies.” How do you convince societies to sacrifice some comforts for the wellbeing of people who have not yet been born? In terms of water, the time table might be even shorter. In this case, the question is not about leaving a habitable planet for future generations, but ensuring that, within our lifespans, we leave enough water for our older selves.

Water is a renewable resource, given that we do not extract it past a sustainable yield. For rivers, this means understanding the processes that create them, and working within the boundaries of sustainability. The exploitation of the Colorado River is a clear case of unsustainable water management. This will have significant consequences in the coming years, when this water is not only needed to fill our swimming pools, but to hydrate our citizens on the most basic level. Conflict over water rights will only increase in the coming years, as climate change continues to take its toll. Wars have been fought over oil as a resource, so it would not be surprising if conflicts over water management accelerated into violence.

I argue that, as a society, we must shift away from our current utilitarian view of water, which disconnects us from our most basic reliance on it as a species. We must confront our ever-growing demands of water and work within the ecology of freshwater systems to ensure a future for many species, including our own. Postel calls for a new ethic that says, “it is not only right and good but necessary that all living things get enough water before some get more than enough.” It will be a race against time for societies to collectively produce this new ethic before the environmental consequences of climate change have taken their full effect.