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[asset|aid=844|format=image|formatter=asset|title=d-q-university.gif|width=300|height=300|align=right|resizable=true]The plight of American Indian communities, to average Americans, is usually either relegated to some distant past or outright ignored. If you're educated, maybe you'll remember reading about the Trail of Tears, or Wounded Knee (probably not Pine Ridge though).

But what about indigenous peoples today? They're largely broken, exiled to barren reservations, faced with an indifferent - or hostile - government, and casino-corrupted leaders.

This makes it all the more important that we sit up and take notice when they rise up and assert their collective rights, despite an almost total media blackout.

After coming home late with my mom from the a San Francisco precinct, I immediately went online to see the results of the last of the Democratic primaries. Yes, I will confess to breaking out in a happy dance with my mom as we witnessed history in the making. Not solely because the first African-American was selected as the presidential nominee for a major party in our lifetime (though it should be acknowledged that Obama is half Kenyan, half Caucasian); but, what he said, and what he has said throughout his campaign, as well as the public's response to his words.

From a medical stand point of view, HIV/AIDS is obviously a devastating disease that has created a profound sense of helplessness within the medical field because it seems as if they can’t find a cure for it and though many attempts are being made; they are just that attempts---but obviously we all hope they will mushroom into something great! However, how do we address what we obviously know is here and won’t go? We have made great strides in educating people about the disease and for developed countries people with the disease actually can live longer than previous times. However, to what extent can we attribute our “ways of life” to this problem? How responsible are we for the causes of the deadly disease. Individual responsibility is often thought of when we ask these questions, but for me I want to ask: to what extent is society as a whole responsible.

From Iraq to Katrina to Iraq again--and every other issue in between--the Bush Presidency has been marred by a series of shameful, incompetent, and dangerous policy decisions. If his last veto on the Iraqi spending bill weren't enough, Bush is ensuring to secure his legacy as a failed presidency.

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This Valentine's Day couples in California are planning in participating in the Freedom to Marry Day protest. Gay and lesbian couples all across the state will be heading to their local county clerk's office to demand marriage certificates, which they will be denied. However, one county clerk's office is taking it a step further.