So I love reading the editorial page at The Daily Universe (the student newspaper at Brigham Young University). During my tenure at BYU and even after I graduated, the editorials have made me laugh and have made me red with anger. Sometimes, they even make me think.
Silly editorials include the ones that bashed PDAs on campus. These letters often popped up during the spring when lovestruck couples multiplied in mass numbers, laying around on any stretch of campus grass with their limbs entwined like grapevines.
Other silly editorials include the ones that urged married students to pack up and leave BYU. The reason for kicking them out? BYU had served its purpose by helping them locate a living and breathing spouse. So off with you married couples! Your mission here is complete.
I will always remember the letter to the editor that urged students to wear distinguishing markers that spelled-out their marital status. This writer suggested that single people should wear a green patch (green for "go for it") while married people should wear a red one (red for "I've been drafted already for the married cause). Hilarious.
Of course, there have been many editorials that have been peppered with homophobia, sexism, and just plain ignorance, but such letters have always caused an outcry from the more rational and "normal" students at BYU.
Anyway, here is a recent editorial from The Daily Universe. The writer is an acquaintance of mine and perhaps one of the funniest guys I know. I had no idea that he was so politically-minded.
"Bush's 'Bizarro World'
I was sucked into President Bush's 'Bizarro World,' where his Clear Skies Acts increases air pollution and his Healthy Forest Initiative opens woodlands to more clear-cutting, as I watched the State of the Union address. He indulged us with more of his double talk as he spoke about the importance of education for our nation's future leaders, when no more than a month ago the Republicans cut more than $12 billion from Federal Student Loans. He spoke about the need for everyone to have affordable health care, when Republicans also recently made huge Medicare cuts to give tax breaks to the rich.
Representative Obey put it best when he said, 'They [Republicans] think they can pretty much do whatever they want to students, because they think that the students will march but they won't vote.' It saddens me that at BYU we will let them do whatever they want to us, and we won't march. And even worse, we will still vote for them!"
Danny Harris
West Jordan
