The following two pages are your words, your letters. We have printed them as we received them. As, at its core, The Signal sees as its mission to provide a mouthpiece for the larger student body at the College, rarely do we discriminate against the submissions we receive.00
Similarly, The Signal has attempted in the past three semesters to keep our Opinions section, your Opinions section, as an open forum for all viewpoints on any subject - again, without discrimination towards the perspectives they represent.
With this policy, we have found (and students have noticed) that there has been an influx of both conservative columns and questionable facts - which is not to suggest a causal relationship between the two.
With this policy we have also found that students are concerned about the seemingly one-sided dialogue that seems to take place within our pages. Some have said they want to see other viewpoints on certain issues represented. Some have gone so far as to question the editorial policy of The Signal, to question how we could even think of publishing some of these inflammatory opinions.
With last week's printing of columnist Todd Carter's piece "Gay marriage harms society far more than it helps," the outcry from the campus was more raucous than usual. While the editorial board certainly does not mean to single out Carter's work, it seems to have been the culmination of students' collective frustrations with the Opinions section.
You wrote letters - lots of letters. Angry letters. Passionate letters. The editors were glad to see such conviction from a campus whose students tend to stand idly by in observation.
This leads us to the current discrepancy in the Opinions section. While we have received many complaints about its content, we have received few remedies. If students believe The Signal needs more liberal views, students should also be willing to step up to the plate and heed this call for alternative opinions.
Rather than writing a fiery letter to the editor every once in a while, take on the task of creating an incendiary column once a week.
You don't have to be an English major or a journalism major to do it. We are a student newspapers. We are here for all students, to represent all student opinions - be they from a chemistry major, a business major, an art major.
All you have to do is care enough to put your thoughts into words, to support those words with facts, to stand up for the ideals which you adhere to. Logic needs no formal credentials, only minds with a willingness to embrace it.
Because at the end of the day, this is your paper. Let it speak for you.
