The advent of wireless Internet connection has been both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, it’s allowed people the ability to work more efficiently and remain consistently accessible. On the other, it’s allowed people the ability to work too efficiently and remain consistently too accessible. The time when a person could shut off their technology and be left with their thoughts is slowly disappearing.

Currently, airlines are moving quickly to make their flights Wi-Fi friendly. During a six-hour flight, a person use to spend time collecting their thoughts, reading a book or magazine anticipating the plane’s landing in a place far from home. Soon, all flights will be Wi-Fi friendly. In addition, no longer simply a place to relax with a book, Border’s Group Inc. recently announced that by mid October almost all of their more than 500 bookstores will offer free Wi-Fi.

It would be foolish to say that wireless Internet hasn’t had its perks. To have Google, direct access to a personal bank account, driving directions, and social networking at our fingertips is amazing. Technology gives us a sense of security, a feeling that we are never truly isolated.

But in our effort to remain connected, day-to-day communication is starting to hollow. For instance, an email used to be a well-crafted exchange between two individuals. However, with advancements in Wi-Fi connectivity, emails have become broken phrases that quickly answer a question. The question usually results in a quick response, but a message lacking a personal touch. Has communication become more efficient? Yes. In doing so, has it lost substance? Definitely.

Moreover, smart phones have provided the ability to consistently be available to the rest of the world. Blackberry’s and iPhone’s, which seem to be forever clutched in the hands of CSUN students as well as our staff here at the Daily Sundial, don’t allow time to focus on the present, the moment that is passing by while a response to a text message, update of a Twitter page or update of a Facebook status takes precedence.

So, the question becomes, at what point do we disconnect?

Maybe people received a taste of the potential repercussions of not disconnecting with the increase in vehicle accidents due to cell phone use. With laws now in place, it is now an obligation to disconnect during some moments in our life. Still, people begrudgingly put away their phone, even knowing they may be saving a life.

But, ultimately, the decision to disconnect is up to the individual – a decision to put one’s self first. Instead of spending time describing how much fun you’re having at so and so’s party on Facebook, why not just live in that moment?

Make a decision that the next time the phone vibrates or a new message appears on the computer screen to say, I’m not accessible right now and everyone else isn’t accessible to me. Potentially, then, a flight on an airplane will remain the first step in separating oneself from their everyday life and a bookstore will be a place to escape into another world.

With a little indulgence or “me time,” maybe down the road our words, emails and thoughts will continue to mean something.

Unsigned editorials represent the majority view of the Sundial editorial board and are not necessarily those of the journalism department. Other views on the opinion page are those of the individual writer.

The flags of Israel and Palestine with photos of an armed Israeli soldier and an angry youth. Photo Illustration by Kurt Strazdins / MCT

The “two-state solution” seems like a fair way to solve the problem in the Middle East between Israel and the Palestine. The Israel Lobby (American Israel Public Affairs Committee), President Obama, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas all back it so what could be the problem?

Israel gets their state and Palestinians get Palestine. Problem solved, right? Unfortunately, a fair “solution” for a Palestinian state has never and will never be offered by Israel. There is only one fair solution at this late stage with Israelis and Palestinians more intertwined than ever. Separation is not an option. The only answer is full human rights for all Israelis and Palestinians in one secular and democratic state.

The first “two-state solution” was United Nations Resolution 181, passed in 1947. Under the diplomatic cover of the UN, White Western Europe and the US decided to carve up indigenous Arab land, which wasn’t theirs to give away. Israel has benefited from being a colonial settler state from the get go.

Fifty-five percent of Palestine was “given” to the Jewish State even though Jews owned only 8 percent of the land at the time. The “Arab State” would get 42 percent even though they owned 92 percent of the land. Jerusalem was to be shared 50/50, as an international city.

Contrary to popular lies, it wasn’t an empty land. Palestine was a historic civilization; here villages are hundreds if not thousands of years old. Many Palestinian towns were in the process of modernizing. Villages were shared by Christians and Muslims, schools added foreign language courses for children, and sophisticated plumbing and irrigation systems were newly added. Tragically, this beautiful civilization was destroyed. Palestine would soon be lost forever.

The injustice of “partitioning” away over half their land was apparent to the Palestinians; they summarily turned down the offer. Can you blame them? Who would willingly give up more than half of their country? David Ben Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, organized a secret group called The Consultancy, whose Plan Dalet was the blueprint for Ethnic Cleansing. The founder of the State of Israel foreshadowed what was to come, “We must expel Arabs and take their places.”

This “expelling of Arabs” was the Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, and is remembered as the Nakba (Arabic meaning catastrophe or disaster). In all, approximately 800,000 Palestinians were forced from their country by psychological torture, brute military force, random terrorist attacks, biological warfare, and ultimately wanton civilian massacres such as the one seen in Deir Yassin. In what could be seen as the perfect metaphor, the Palestinian village of Khayriyya (Arabic for “The Blessing of the Land) was demolished and in its place, the garbage dump for Tel Aviv was built. Approximately 13 towns and 419 villages were ethnically cleansed so Jewish Zionists could “take their places.”

In response to the refugee crisis, the UN passed Resolution 194 in December 1948. It guaranteed the right of all the refugees of Palestine to return to their homes at the earliest possible date. This “right of return,” for the approximately 800,000 refugees and their descendents is sacred, absolute, and non-negotiable.

The second attempt at a “two-state solution” was in 1949. The UN’s Palestine Conciliation Commission made the unconditional return of all refugees, along with a 50/50 split of Palestine, the conditions for peace. According to Israeli historian Ilan Pappe’s book, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, everyone accepted this as a fair solution, “The US, the UN, the Arab world, the Palestinians, and Israel’s foreign minister.” So who prevented peace? Prime Minister of Israel, David Ben Gurion and King Abdullah of Jordan had other plans to divide Palestine between them.

In 1967, Israel occupied the remaining 22 percent of Palestine they didn’t cleanse the first time around (The West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip). Forty-two years later this now amounts to the longest military occupation in modern human history. Israel almost immediately started building colonies on this occupied land. Currently, there are almost 500,000 Israeli settlers living in illegal colonies in the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Every last one of these settlements is a violation of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which states an occupying power cannot transfer its population into an occupied territory.

The occupation continues, and the Palestinians are barely clinging to life. You may hear a lot of talk on the news about Obama’s demand for an Israeli “settlement freeze.” But this plea for Israel to put an end to the colonization of Palestine is nothing new.

Israel’s participation in 2003’s Road Map for Peace required Israel to “dismantle settlement outposts erected since March 2001” and to “freeze all settlement activity.” Since the occupation began in 1967, and President Lyndon Johnson called settlements “an obstacle to peace,” every US administration has subsequently denounced settlements.

If Israel knows the US offers only empty threats, why would they stop their takeover of Palestine? Are Jim Crow-style, Jewish-only villages and roads, and hundreds of humiliating checkpoints the way to peace?

Isn’t a “two-state solution” nothing more than segregation all over again? It seems like it’s a terribly racist thing to say, “These people can’t possibly live together; they have to be separated (equally).” The two-state solution is nothing more than “separate but equal” on a grand scale.

“Supporters of Israel” advocate a racially and religiously pure state for them and them alone. I hear talk of establishment of a Palestinian state, and a “democratic Jewish state.” Could America be a democracy for an African-American minority if we were officially a “White Christian Nation”? Of course not. So, why is segregation glorified in the Holy Land?

Stay tuned for Part two: Israel and Palestine already live in one state. Let’s make it official (and fair).

Walking across campus on Tuesday, students were crowding around the sorority and fraternity tables. Diligent efforts to raise money and get students to join their organizations were in full swing while people laughed and conversed with a sense of joy. Something was missing. Concern.  To my dismay there wasn’t any concern about what is happening to our education and around the world. I mean do the students of CSUN really care?

Some faculty members and students reacted with anger over an article about blow jobs in the Sept. 10 issue of the Daily Sundial. What shocked me was more people reacted to an article about “blow jobs” than the amazing articles about the Metrolink tragedy.

I was shocked at those who wasted their time and energy on a 600-word column about how blow jobs affect a relationship. From the looks of things here at CSUN, the reaction was the liveliest I’ve seen. That time and energy should be focused on fighting for our education that is hard to come by these days.

Why aren’t we protesting against those who threaten to take our education away? Why aren’t we concerned with issues like job loss, budget cuts, healthcare or more troops going to war? Why aren’t we fighting for causes that are worth fighting for?

Right now our country is in a battle to provide healthcare for those who simply can’t afford to pay for it.  Some people get healthcare through work but it’s not enough for their children.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau in 2008 almost 20 percent of the California population is uninsured.  In an economic crisis like this students should be vocal regarding this important problem.

There are approximately 14.9 million people unemployed in this country. Once again, students should be speaking out about causes such as this.

The increase in job loss affects all of us.  Without jobs, students are unable to afford tuition, books, food, etc.  And how many of those jobless are parents with children in college?  Without a job, are parents unable to provide their children with an education?

Financial aid is not what it used to be.  There are more and more students being forced to get a student loan because they don’t qualify for financial aid.

Faculty members have lost 9.23 percent of their annual salaries this year because of the recent budget cuts.  As we all know students are experiencing furlough days.

Because of the recent budget cuts, classes were cut and the class sizes increased.  We are paying more for education but we are getting less of one.

In America we have the right and freedom to voice our opinion, but we ignore it when it comes to causes that matter most. Did we as a society forget what freedom of speech means?

This year alone tuition went up 10 percent and to add insult to injury that 10 percent turned into a 30 percent increase.  We should be fighting for our rights as students. The idea that we don’t speak out against these educational travesties is an insult to democracy and our freedom.

Many went to the “Vent at the tent” to express their anger about the recent budget cuts, increase in tuition, and not being able to add classes.  But it seems that’s all it was: a day for people to vent. Then what? It’s over? We vent, feel better and skip away merrily?

Many people expressed their opinions and frustrations that week, but what about other days? Where are the protests, rallies and walkouts? We need to continue to fight for our education and future.

I understand that people need to have fun and go out on a Saturday night.  I also understand that students have other concerns such as jobs and trying to graduate on time, but really, how are we going to graduate on time when there are no classes available? What happens after graduation? What about your future? When is it a good time to be concerned about these issues? The time is now.

As students we have a chance to change what is happening to us now, so instead of wasting your energy on an article about blow jobs, voice your opinion on causes that matter because in the end, what we do have is our voice, freedom and democracy.