This last semester was a unique one for the Opinion section, to say the least. Students have used the public forum of the Opinion page to debate illegal immigration, homosexuality, Satanism in the MUSS, the pros and cons of greek life, abortion, the UCard program, the efficiency of TRAX, whether or not to teach children about Santa, liberalism v. conservatism in politics and whether or not the LDS Church has banned…uh…never mind.
We hope to continue the trend of students writing in with whatever opinions and arguments they’d like to share, but we’d also like to see the level of discourse present on this page go up a notch.
If there is anything our country could use, it’s a greater level of intelligent, civilized conversation about the issues facing society.
This isn’t to say that we don’t appreciate what people have had to say-but there have obviously been times when letters don’t do their authors, or their arguments, justice.
Continue to write in, but please, do yourself and your fellow students a favor-don’t undermine your own arguments by willfully misunderstanding the statements of others, engaging in childish name-calling or being unnecessarily inflammatory.
And please, don’t take everything so seriously. Sometimes we at The Chronicle overestimate our readers’ ability to take a joke-and sometimes we overestimate our own brilliant senses of humor. If we go too far, please write in and let us know, but don’t immediately bust out the torches and pitchforks.
Ultimately, debate is the medium through which we begin to find truth. By listening to the ideas and arguments of others, we learn more about the world around us-and even when we disagree with each other, we benefit by being forced to examine our own beliefs more closely.
So write in with your thoughts and opinions. We’ll be glad to let everyone at this campus have the opportunity to state his or her piece.