Published: Daily Op-Ed

Peacelight Proudly Presents: My First Published Piece in the Daily!

That's right loyal readers, without making it publicly known, yours truly had secretly submitted an Opinion-Editorial (Wikipedia claims Op-Ed does not stand for that, I argue that, through common misconstrual, it has come to) to the Tufts Daily.

View (and "like," for facebook users) the official article titled "The race card: Maybe we jumped the gun" available on the Daily's website.

I would take a picture of the paper, but the Daily has kindly provided a simpler alternative; full-page online previews of the print publication. Here's a screen-grab of today's edition:

Pages 6-7 of the 6 Dec. 2010 Tufts Daily, featuring my article in the bottom right, complete with large photograph.

As it would happen, the front page of the Daily contained a full headline article chronicling the postering events which took place last Friday, after the Daily had published its Friday issue. Included in this issue were also: one editorial piece on the subject, one cartoon on the matter, and two Op-Eds, of which mine was the latter. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the other Op-Ed was co-authored by the actual creators of the gun/wrench posters, defending their actions. My piece, located directly below theirs, unintentionally refuted some of their points, giving the last word on the issue.

The poster people contend that they are not trying to ridicule anyone and reference a variety of historical examples of times when discrimination was an overlooked but important issue. I still contend, however, that they are making an issue of something that was never racially motivated, and that we should be focused on safety in this case. In fact, I would go so far as to argue that, had a white man been carrying around the same object, the caller would have still called in. Quite frankly, although racial biases do exist, this isn't an example of one

Granted, not everyone will agree with my take on the incident, and that's fine. I think we can all agree (1) that racial/gender dialogue is important, but also that (2) campus safety and the reporting of suspicious activity is also important.

Ironically, a Safety Alert today (we don't get them every week, seriously; just sometimes) warned us of an off-campus robbery. The suspect was described as white.

Back to point, read the article(s), enjoy, and remember: if you ever feel like any of my posts should become an Op-Ed, let me know. I'll rewrite them so as to submit original, unpublished work, and then send them in. Who knows, one of these days I could end up on staff.

Thanks to the Daily for publishing so many diverse viewpoints, thanks to Max for all of the great posts, conversations, and posters, and thanks to our mysterious caller for helping keep us safe.