"Years ago, my mother used to say to me... 'In this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant.' Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant."
- Elwood P. Dowd, Harvey
On April 9, 2003, a 40-foot statue of Saddam Hussein fell as U.S. troops liberated the people of Baghdad from the Baath regime. The next day, two dozen protesters responded to the war by forming a human chain to block Chapel traffic and prevented a significant number of students from reaching their classes.
As the hackneyed expression goes, universities offer great opportunities for discourse and the free flow of ideas, but a militant minority hides behind this well-meaning doctrine of openness to impose its viewpoint on everyone else. When the outcome runs contrary to what it desires, it adopts less friendly means, including the recent street blockade. Only a week earlier, protesters stormed the Duke Student Government Legislature meeting because the body had voted down a resolution condemning Operation Iraqi Freedom. With each incident, the protest usurped the underlying controversy as the subject for debate.
In a country where almost three-quarters of the population supported the military strikes, the blockaders' political paraphernalia claimed that their voices "have been silenced," but losing my sympathy long ago, these aggressive groups repeatedly and erroneously claim that their views have not been heeded. Last spring, several members of the Duke Progressive Alliance complained to The Chronicle's leadership that the editorial page columnists were too conservative, but an examination of the opinion writers suggested otherwise. Even after generously labeling two Democrats in favor of attacking Afghanistan as conservative, 70 percent of our political column space in each six-week block was still given to liberals who held some progressive themes. (Over the 2002-2003 year, the columnists seem to have written even more pieces opposing the Bush administration's war policies against Iraq.)
In fact, the only significant change to the columnist pool's demographics from fall 2001 to spring 2002 was increasing our number of staunch conservatives to two. If anything, we had too few commentaries from the right.
They also complained to us - with slightly more validity - that The Chronicle lacked ethnic diversity among its columnists, but their solution would only have led to other problems in racial equality. Relying on the writing and debating potential of the applicant pool, the editorial staff should not enter the selection process looking for a certain number of conservatives, another amount of liberals and a predetermined level of ethnic minorities. If someone determines a superior way of selecting columnists over these standards, we certainly welcome suggestions.
Unfortunately, the protesters who impeded me and many others from going to class April 10 abandoned genuine outlets for dialogue and chose not to respect the capacity of individuals in the Duke community to take differing views. Instead of winning people to their side through debate, participants in events such as the blockade unilaterally attempt to impose their stances on everyone else - all while anointing themselves victims against tyrants.
Former Chronicle Editor Ambika Kumar expressed quite well in last year's senior farewell the need to respect differing views on issues and to engage others in debate. "Why not sit down and answer their arguments," Kumar wrote, "rather than give up and label them offensive?" Over the past four years, I have seen instances where both conservatives and liberals strayed in this regard to the detriment of substantive discussion, but with notable exceptions, the Iraqi debate has been more encouraging. Unlike the heated 2000 presidential election where community members divided largely based on their party affiliations, the debate over the effectiveness of the United Nations and U.S. preemption policy crossed such lines. Positions have been tested and accordingly refined, and semblances of genuine academic discourse have emerged.
Each year, Chronicle leaders have increasingly tried to accommodate multiple angles into news coverage with particular concern toward our mission to be the independent newspaper for the entire Duke community, and the editorial page section has assumed a similar role. Although constrained by space, these opinion pages do not reject submissions for their ideological positions and instead encourage community members' unique perspectives. As the primary outlet for campus dialogue, make use of this venue through your letters, columns and online feedback. Debate will always have a welcome place in this university setting where everyone is already smart, and pleasant, respectfulness is always appreciated.
Trinity senior John Bush has served as editorial page editor and online editor of The Chronicle.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.