By Hirak Mukhopadhyay

Given the recent tragedy in South Carolina, I hate to take away from the actual tragedy and talk politics. No one or their families, no matter who they are, what they believe, and what ethnicity they belong to should suffer such violence and senseless killing. But it brings to light the issue of Confederate nostalgia, the same Confederacy who fought the United States in the Civil War because slavery was so important to them that they wanted their own country to preserve it. Despite the Confederate flag being a sign of racist hatred, it still shines along the Capitol building of South Carolina, the state where this terrible act of terrorism just took place in the AME Church in Charleston. It is a great contradiction that as a state mourns for its loss, it hangs a flag representative of a group of people who had killed and tortured and raped the same culture of people it is now mourning for now. Therefore, if one good thing can come out of the AME terrorist attacks, it should be ending the display of the Confederate flag by all levels of government, whether it be local, state, and federal.

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By Hirak Mukhopadhyay

As many of you know, Beau Biden passed away over the weekend. I have some personal insight regarding Beau’s persona and career that I would like share.

When I was a student at Caravel Academy in Delaware, Beau Biden once visited gave a speech to the middle and upper school divisions. It was the fall of 2008, just months before his father Joe Biden and President Obama were elected. Yet during his speech, Beau made no mention of the election, even though it was literally going on at the time and 2008 was perhaps the busiest year of his life. Not to mention his moment of glory during the Democratic Convention. Yet that wasn’t mentioned either. If my memory serves me well, I don’t think he mentioned his dad at all. Instead, Beau discussed children and teens being safe. Safe from teen crime, drugs, alcohol, pedophiles, rapists, and the dangerous adults and teenagers who lurk around the internet on sites such as Myspace and chatrooms (it was 2008). It was a truly caring and thoughtful presentation, one that showed that even though Delaware is such a small state and people might think “oh, it’s Delaware, what’s the worst that can happen?” Beau was quite concerned.

One of Beau’s best lawyers in the Delaware Attorney General’s Office was one of my professors in the spring of 2014. This must be a tough time for him as well. But while telling the class about what goes on in the office that Beau was in charge of, he told me that prosecuting cases in Delaware, even though it’s quiet and small, is much harder than people think. Wilmington has a lot of crime, and there are very few people in the state, which makes it difficult to find witnesses or evidence. Delaware is not New York City where there’s cameras everywhere. Given that, being Attorney General of Delaware is actually a pretty difficult job, and studying criminal justice and politics has given me the impression that since Delaware doesn’t have much taxes, they probably didn’t have much funding to work with. So when people say Beau was a talent, I certainly believe it.

After watching his DNC speech when I got older, I realized that Beau really did have a bright future. I was really looking forward to seeing him run for Congress or Governor, and the Democratic candidate for Lieutenant Governor came to our College Democrats meeting once. It’s a shame he and Beau can no longer run together, as Beau was planning a run for governor in 2016. But more importantly, Beau was a son, a father, a husband, and a family man. But he also lived up to Biden name and accomplished something on his own. My deepest condolences go to out to the Biden family at this difficult time and may Beau rest in peace.