My name is Patrick Crowley and I have the exhausting challenge as the Opinions Editor of The Crimson White to generate conversation on campus through a selection of diverse opinions from all reaches of campus. On a campus as large as The University of Alabama’s, where the amount of unique individuals engenders a multitude of diverse and differing opinions, I will struggle mightily to present every opinion. Yet, the opinions I do choose to present will be those relevant to students on campus and pushes you, the reader, to challenge their currently held beliefs and ideals. Since all students on campus are here for an education and heightened intelligence, it is important to remember what F. Scott Fitzgerald said: “The sign of an educated man is one who can hold two contradictory ideas in mind at the same time and continue to function.”
To this end, the opinions page will be an open battlefield for all to wage intellectual battles. What it will not be is a page for personal and uninformed vendettas against any individual or organization on campus. The opinions page of any newspaper serves a forum for discussion for every member of society so we can all be more informed about the society and world we inhabit. Just like any Joe on the street can submit a letter to the New York Times, so too can any individual on campus submit a letter to The Crimson White. One new feature of the opinions page will be columns produced by a variety of faculty members – this is as much their campus as it is students’ – because far too often students view professors as only teachers and not writers, thinkers and human beings capable of producing more than an informative PowerPoint and grading boring papers.
Of course, if a student does not like the current conversation occurring on campus or on the pages of The Crimson White, submit a letter to me and try to change the conversation. It is a far better thing to write a letter that the public can determine as valid or truthful than to hide in the dark shooting volleys at people who you disagree with. Furthermore, for anyone who thinks they can write better and discuss a better issue than an opinion that was published, I greatly encourage you to quit talking and start writing against or for the opinion – talk is cheap, but writing is rich.
I must caveat by stating that not all well-written and informed letters will be published. The totality of great thinkers who could produce excellent opinion columns greatly exceed the number of available column spots. I eagerly look forward to being able to present excellent opinion columns on a multitude of issues from a myriad of views. I end by leaving you with a challenge to form an opinion piece of your own and submit it to [email protected].
Patrick Crowley is the Opinions Editor of The Crimson White. He is a senior majoring in mathematics, finance and economics.
