First, welcome back to campus. If your break was anything like mine, you had an OK time – the turkey was not burned too terribly, and you’re glad to be back here another semester.
As I was preparing for my column, I skimmed the national newspapers. Though I found much that I could write about for my first column, little of it applied to students.
After all, what perspective can I offer on the passing of the emir of Kuwait, the Chilean presidential election or the New York banker who was trying to break up Time Warner Inc.?
Instead of writing about news on which I have very little particular knowledge to add, there is a pressing point on campus much closer to me. Perennially, students complain how displeased they are with the alleged left-leaning opinion section. Others complain we neglect other important issues.
Still others complain about how much attention we give to touchy subjects – my own fraternity hung a banner showing The Daily Reveille beating a dead horse, which represented the Confederate flag issue.
In working at The Daily Reveille for three semesters now, I have never found the opinion section to be too liberal.
Sure, I agreed with the nay-sayers before joining the paper; the liberalism compelled me to try and get a little conservatism in print on this campus.
Of course I wasn’t reading the paper every day. If I would read the paper only on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I would only be exposed to a handful of columnists.
I was surprised to find in my first semester that I was hardly the most conservative in the section; I was actually one of the more liberal minded. Certainly now, with conservatives like Bryan Beyer and Jason Dore, the paper better represents the political proclivities of the student body general, with those on the left and middle having their own representatives.
What set me musing on this subject was a recent chat given by a professional columnist who came to speak to our section.
He said it is a scary thing to think that people only read those columnists with whom they know they will already agree. Perhaps we give our own leanings too much weight and too little scrutiny.
It is true that some issues are not touched upon by columnists. Issues on campus have the baffling duality of being both very dear to some and very ephemeral to many others. What is truly newsworthy is a personal call for everyone writing and especially for the editors.
As for columnists beating dead horses, let’s face it, it happens, not just here at this paper, but elsewhere at both other university and professional papers.
The Confederate flag issue, in my mind, is a dead horse for the opinion section. Neither side seems to be willing to make peace with the other while the administration maintains a position of hostile neutrality – they oppose the flag but will not ban it.
Other issues, like the parking problem and our outrageously egregious tribute to the Japanese anime that is our mascot, get a lot of press.
The very reason these issues get so much press is because they can; nobody seems to be doing anything about them. Parking seems to be worse now than it was when I started here more than three years ago. Apparently there are enough people who prefer the new mascot graphic to the one featured on football helmets – personally I don’t even like the new font for “LSU.”
Sadly, for those who are still dissatisfied with the content of the opinion section, someone is bound to write about the lack of convenient parking options. Next football season, there will be a column about the purple and gold Confederate flag. Someone will probably write about the lack of improvement to our campus through Emmert’s Flagship Agenda.
The effects of Hurricane Katrina have not yet been rectified. There will be liberal columnists who will be paid for voicing unpopular ideas in this newspaper.
You don’t have to read any of it, but we will still be here in case you do.
 
Lake is a history senior: Contact him at [email protected]