Responding to responses: Why inflammatory may do some good

Recently, one of our columnists wrote a response to two other articles published a few months ago. What he wrote has generated a strong reaction among the students, faculty and staff on our campus and critics have questioned why the University of Dayton would allow such an inflammatory article to be published.

Flyer News is a student-operated publication, and the students on campus who contribute their stories and experiences in the opinions forum are entitled to express themselves. If a student takes issue with the opinion of another student, they can write in to Flyer News and argue their side. Listening and adapting to someone else’s perspective and arguments while providing your own are effective methods in solving problems. Disagreement and discussion are an essential part of how we move forward as a society.

The nature of the Opinions section requires columnists to be provocative, to express concerns over what they see in the world and to raise the level of conversation on campus above, “So are you going out tonight?” While we believe that there is a time and place for recreation, in whatever form, we must also acknowledge that we are preparing to lead a world that can be dark, forcing ourselves to ask hard questions about ourselves and our community.

There are important issues happening on our campus, in our country and throughout the world, and we’re talking about them right here in this forum. Submitting an article to Flyer News gets your ideas in front of thousands of readers, making them think about it, talk about it, and, hopefully, act on it. To limit submissions to the forum, both in print and online, simply because we fear a backlash does a disservice to the student body and our faculty readership. More importantly, it goes against our ideals of using open discussion to foster positive development.

Beginning this, and other, conversation leads the problems actually being discussed. Maybe a solution doesn’t arise from these talks, but a conversation is always the first step, regardless of the issue at hand.

So let’s keep talking, keep writing and keep moving ourselves forward.