The tone of it all

At the end of my senior year in high school, my AP English teacher read my class a Dr. Seuss book called Oh, the places you'll go! (Coincidentally, I did better on the math part of the SATs). The book's words are simple yet its message is key to any graduating class. Although many of us are closing a part of our life - whether we're graduating with our bachelor's, Ph.D., law or business degree, or just taking off for the summer - our education never really ends. You probably have realized by now that you learn just as much, if not more, outside the classroom than in. As a Daily columnist, this has certainly been true for me this year.

Before I sat down to write my final column, I asked myself what could I write that readers wouldn't take offensively. Any time I have written about gender equality (as opposed to women's rights) for example, some of the responses have been quite defensive. Just because a person claims a right doesn't necessarily mean that person is taking a right away from another. Rights sometimes conflict but only so long as the debate is framed as "my way or the highway."

How gender plays out in all areas of life - politically, economically, mentally and sexually - is fascinating to me. On the national and local level, priests are submitting their resignations following allegations of sexual abuse, particularly abuse of males. Hopefully I'm not the only one who has noticed this, but why is our culture generally more tolerant of the sexual abuse of males? Are young, vulnerable males somehow expected to tolerate abuse, or do we not think males can be sexually abused and scarred for life? Of course the role of religion is significant in these sex-abuse cases, yet it seems we usually talk of sexual abuse as something that only happens to females.

The thing is though, I didn't write for The Daily in order to be politically correct, to further my name or that of any campus group. As long as people print, others will be offended, but that still doesn't mean you have "a right" to sell your crotch (see "Sex: It's not for sale" opinions).

Insofar as this column goes, some last comments on the "abortion issue." For a man to say he is pro-life personally, legally or as a matter of public policy is not the same thing as a woman saying so. Granted, abortion is one of those issues where anyone who has an opinion on the issue will never be satisfied. But to say that abortion is always murder, even when the pregnancy is endangering a woman's life, is automatically discounting the woman's life. There's no way around that.

As webster walker said earlier this year, "Life is not a debate." This cannot be emphasized enough. The opinion page this year has been far too serious. In fact, we may actually need a federal law mandating humor on The Daily's opinion page from now on.

Let's come to an understanding on one thing though. The Daily is chastised on a fairly regular basis for its opinions, "biases" and unintentional mistakes. You wouldn't read The Daily if you didn't, at the very least, want to know what happened on campus yesterday, what is happening today and what will be happening tomorrow, now would you? You may just need to read The Daily. After all, how else would you know what to criticize us on? Think about it.

While it's important to give your feelings a voice, including writing letters to the editor, just remember that how you convey yourself will be read by your friends, professors, and the staff and administrators you come into contact with.

H.L. Mencken used to respond to his readers with this line: "You may be right." Perhaps.