Understanding
Issue date: 2/23/09 Section: Letters to Editor
Dear Editor,
Recently what I have been reading in the East Tennessean has disgusted me on different levels. It has bothered me as a student and a citizen. I am not talking about the content which is written and published in the paper, but I am talking about the remarks given by students directed toward the writers and editors of this publication.
On June 22, 1970 the case Norton vs. the Discipline Committee of East Tennessee State University was seen by the Supreme Court, in an attempt to overturn their suspension for the distribution of leaflets that were critical of the campus administration. The leaflets contained the viewpoints of several students in regards to what they believed were improper policies when it came to the dress code, social regulations, campus police behavior and the regulation of the campus newspaper. These leaflets also gave their disdain for those students who show a lack of action when it came to policies that they were too upset about.
The students in this case understood what the paper was about. They fought for the right to have editorial freedom, and the capabilities to write stories that express the opinion of the average student. They fought for the right not to have to assimilate into the norm.
The idea of the East Tennessean is to report information and stories that are "newsworthy" to the students, and to those who write the stories.
The idea of the East Tennessean is not to copy and paste news that is already reported in the Johnson City Press or any other newspaper, such as events concerning British and French submarines colliding, or the death count of hungry children.
Frederick Douglass once said, "If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle."
Recently what I have been reading in the East Tennessean has disgusted me on different levels. It has bothered me as a student and a citizen. I am not talking about the content which is written and published in the paper, but I am talking about the remarks given by students directed toward the writers and editors of this publication.
On June 22, 1970 the case Norton vs. the Discipline Committee of East Tennessee State University was seen by the Supreme Court, in an attempt to overturn their suspension for the distribution of leaflets that were critical of the campus administration. The leaflets contained the viewpoints of several students in regards to what they believed were improper policies when it came to the dress code, social regulations, campus police behavior and the regulation of the campus newspaper. These leaflets also gave their disdain for those students who show a lack of action when it came to policies that they were too upset about.
The students in this case understood what the paper was about. They fought for the right to have editorial freedom, and the capabilities to write stories that express the opinion of the average student. They fought for the right not to have to assimilate into the norm.
The idea of the East Tennessean is to report information and stories that are "newsworthy" to the students, and to those who write the stories.
The idea of the East Tennessean is not to copy and paste news that is already reported in the Johnson City Press or any other newspaper, such as events concerning British and French submarines colliding, or the death count of hungry children.
Frederick Douglass once said, "If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle."
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