I am often proud to tell people that I attend Pacific University. It is a place I can call home and I can revere for the education I have received from genuine, caring people. I can also take pride in knowing that I contribute to my campus community by being a part of The Pacific Index, reporting the news whether it is good, bad or controversial.
So when I hear about other members of my college community destroying the Index staff’s hours of endless work simply because it displeased them, I am no longer proud but downright embarrassed for the Pacific community.
It was reported in the police logs of the Sept. 19 issue of the Forest Grove News-Times that a group of students was found off campus, burning copies of The Pacific Index, presumably because they did not like an article that had been published.
I can only assume that I know which article this group of individuals was displeased with. However, what matters is not what the article addressed or why the group was angry enough to irresponsibly start a small fire after a particularly dry past few weeks in Forest Grove, but that these actions are completely childish for a group of adults to commit.
Let me first extend my congratulations to the individuals involved. You managed to destroy all the leftover copies of a university publication, bought with university funding that your tuition pays for. While you are at it, I’m sure there are a few dollars left over in your wallets to burn as well.
The role of the Index is to keep the Pacific community informed, not to attack them. Yet you chose to retaliate anyway, destroying the publication students create as not only their school work but as a service to their peers.
I suppose that burning our work simply because it upset you means that it would be acceptable for me to burn some of your essays that you spent hours on if I did not approve of their topic, correct? Wrong.
If you disagree with something being written in your campus publication, there are mature and non-barbaric ways to voice your outrage. A letter to the editor or an opinion piece on why you found our reporting unacceptable would put your college education to better use and show it far more effectively than you burning a bunch of papers with your buddies like a caveman. But once again, I can only point out the outcome I am sure this group was looking for.
Yes, we have no further prints of that issue of the newspaper to proudly show friends and loved ones. Touché. But I will just open The Pacific Index website instead, seeing as this group has not managed to get hold of the Internet with their flames of destruction.
This mini-bonfire might have meant that the events reported upon would never reach the attention of the community. That is, of course, except for the fact that public records do exist and the community can find reports there as well.
Once again, Pacific should be embarassed that these individuals thought censorship would be achieved with their childish solutions.
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