Editor:

I am writing in response to David Alder’s (“Chrony Comics display immaturity,” Dec. 1) and Sabrina King’s (“Cartoon proves that The Chronicle is not a legitimate paper,” Dec. 1) letters to the editor.

I would like to say that while I am very critical of The Chrony, I do not see what your problems are-as cool as it makes you look to point out that The Chrony is “immature” and “not a real newspaper.”

What is your point? The Chrony, as has been stated many times, is an independent newspaper. While I do agree that its writers shouldn’t (for their own sake) offend their constituency, one of the things that defines such a paper is the ability to step out of the norm that one receives from so many mainstream newspapers and say, “Wow, some people get excited over strange things,” as with the Panda comic, or make a joke dependent on common colloquialisms in use by its readers, as with the “Faggot/Tool” joke.

Personally, I think The Chrony staff has a duty, as a college paper, to challenge us as readers and to challenge the common perception of the news with new and interesting thoughts and ideas. Sometimes these thoughts are crude and offensive, but I think that we need to take a moment and consider why these things are so offensive.

There are many reasons, and not enough space here to consider them all, so I shall simply say this-if you are never offended during your education here at the U, then either you or your professors have failed.

The point of education is not to coddle you and to reinforce all the things you “know,” but to challenge you and give you the chance to change your long-held beliefs about what is and what isn’t. The Chrony is a satellite organization of the university, and as such, should be doing its best to do that very same thing.

David Yancey

Sophomore, Anthropology