Can’t we all just get along? I don’t really understand what it is about Louisiana culture that prevents us from doing so… perhaps it’s something in the water? From a student’s perspective (I spent three semesters as a senator for the College of Agriculture, so I’ll submit to a critique offering that I have a distorted viewpoint) nothing makes me more frustrated than watching Student Government and the Daily Reveille go at it. I just don’t understand it.

Let’s start with The Daily Reveille: this past November, an opinion column was run titled “Student Government held down by fluff and ego.” In that article, SG was criticized for being a group of self-serving, do-gooders who are only out to pad their resumes. In that article, a series of numbers was thrown at readers in order to illustrate an example of our SG’s ego in regard to LSU’s low voter turnout. But let’s take a look at what the numbers distorted; LSU has a student population of (at the time) 29, 718. After doing the math, in reality, LSU had a 21.96 percent voter turnout. University of Florida, who was touted as university who “shelled-out” votes, in reality, with its 49,589 student population and 10,644 votes actually had a lower voter turnout (about 21.5 percent) than LSU. The article also cited other schools for numbers, but in reality, those schools too weren’t all that far off from LSU, and if they were, the article mentioned nothing of the corrupt political systems that generate their voter turnouts (i.e. the “machine” at the University of Alabama [about 30 percent voter turnout] where Greeks essentially decide who will win the election). Now, LSU admittedly has one of the lowest voter turnouts in SEC and obviously numbers are very important, considering the opinion of the Daily Reveille Editorial Board implying that SG is attempting to reduce transparency by issuing voting percentages instead of person-by-person voting, but as a casual observer, printing articles with distorted information is just as bad.

Now on to SG: the Daily Reveille printed both this article and the one I cited above as OPINION articles. It’s an opinion. Everybody has one, and just because their opinion is different than yours, doesn’t make it wrong. That elementary concept seems to be something that many people in Louisiana have trouble reconciling with, but that doesn’t make it any less important. Furthermore, the only reason that I knew anything about the vote by senate or the article in the Reveille is because of the social media post made by people within SG commenting on the article and Daily Reveille in general. But I have news for you guys; do you know who reads the opinion articles about SG within the Reveille (when you’re not publicizing them on your social media)? If I had to guess, I’d say writers for the Reveille and members of SG. If anything, throwing mud at people you feel have wronged you only makes you look immature; two wrongs don’t make a right. Student Government, do you feel that burning fire inside you? That’s your passion; that’s your motivation to be the best that you can be; that’s politics; don’t put stock in what opinion articles or misquotes in the Reveille make SG look like. Put stock in the work you do and let your product speak for itself (a product which is often times underrated and underappreciated).

I guess asking the media and those involved in politics to get along is about as futile as trying to get fire not to melt ice, but come on y’all, show a bit of self respect. Think about what you’re doing and whom it’s affecting. This game of he-said-she-said only makes everyone exhausted. So, Reveille, keep printing the “hard hitting stories” that your readers have the right to read and SG, keep doing what is best by your constituents. But remember, as the old adage goes, “those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.”