Turning heads, changing minds in difficult times
It goes without saying that we live in challenging times.
Domestically, federal funding cuts and directives have put research grants and graduate school hopes at risk. International students and professors, many of whom have the legal right to work and reside indefinitely in the United States, are facing a revocation of that right and deportation.
Globally, conflicts of extraordinary destruction have killed untold numbers of people, and set many more out on dangerous voyages for safety. My home country of Korea still grapples with the impact of President Yoon’s attempt to fix political gridlock through a horribly executed self-coup — and that’s putting it mildly.
In times like these, it really is difficult to try to sit down with the person next to you and hold a conversation, especially when they sometimes don’t seem to see you as an equal.
But as both a student journalist and a historian, I’m reminded that it’s often not the call of the bullhorn or the swing of the axe that spurs change, but the slow, methodic pace of deliberation. We humans tend to make the best decisions when we’re ready to reason with each other through careful arguments that, in the Opinions section, we devote entire weekends to planning, writing and rewriting.
As someone who comes from the country that literally wrote the book on how to protest, I won’t dismiss the power of protests intended to be disruptive — but far too often, we fail to realize that we can turn heads and change minds not with the brick of disruption, but rather the stroke (or two) of the pen of discourse.
We can see the value in the opinions section as a neutral space on our campus for reasoning with each other in good faith, and opening up new ideas, concepts and conversations.
We can begin to repair the shattered remains of our civil society not by burning what’s left to the ground, but by building spaces for essential conversations.
As I reflect on the end of my tenure as opinions editor, I can’t help but be astounded by the range of the perspectives we’ve already had the privilege to honor. From powerful op-eds on the war in Gaza to a piece on making campus more bird-friendly, our breadth and depth in these past two years gives me hope that we can, in fact, repair by simply starting a conversation.
I am confident that under my successor, Jenna, we’ll continue to be a space where you can share your perspectives, to launch a debate about how we can make our campus — and what lies beyond it — better. I remain convinced that yes, voicing your opinions is important now, more than ever, if only we have the courage to first put our pens to paper.
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