A theme throughout this post is prudence (and the possible lack of it this particular case).
In the recent weeks, I have moved and taken a new position at a university library. I won’t say where, because as you have almost certainly read at least once, there have been cases of faculty and staff at institutes of “higher learning” losing their jobs because of opinions they posted on private blogs.
Furthermore, as I have not yet established Internet access at my apartment, the only place I can post is… at the university. I very much understand the potential risk this involves, especially since I often prefer to write and save my writings in Notepad or Word rather than directly in WordPress.
Even more than the above, however, is the fact that I read the campus newspaper.
When I was a college student myself, I wrote into and for my alma mater’s paper, starting with the occasional commentary and ending with a weekly column. On more than one occasion, what I wrote was a response to someone else’s opinion, giving my thoughts as to why, well, that person might not be thinking as clearly as he should. It had even been hinted to me that I seemed to have a personal grudge against one particular writer. (While the erstwhile editor — and current friend — did and still does joke about it, a professor also mentioned that fact to me while I was there.)
Now, as a staff member and “servant” to the students, it would be imprudent (see?) to write the same type of responses I would have as a student. In fact, it probably is advisable for me to leave the campus newspaper editorial section to the students from now on.
Yet, I am an opinion writer, I do have opinions, and occasionally I run into something that fires me up so much, thoughts run through my head and my fingers seem to desperately need to take to a keyboard to get them out.
Though I still realize that while this is the case, unlike when I write about articles posted on Yahoo! News or even letters to the editor in local newspapers, linking to and quoting anything from the newspaper at the campus I’m on is less than the best idea. So as much as I want you to read the exact column and particular quotes that raised my ire, I know I shouldn’t. Hence, paraphrasing is about as good as I can do for you, which is disappointing, to say the least.
Prudence and Charity
January 29th, 2010 | 2 Comments »A theme throughout this post is prudence (and the possible lack of it this particular case).
In the recent weeks, I have moved and taken a new position at a university library. I won’t say where, because as you have almost certainly read at least once, there have been cases of faculty and staff at institutes of “higher learning” losing their jobs because of opinions they posted on private blogs.
Furthermore, as I have not yet established Internet access at my apartment, the only place I can post is… at the university. I very much understand the potential risk this involves, especially since I often prefer to write and save my writings in Notepad or Word rather than directly in WordPress.
Even more than the above, however, is the fact that I read the campus newspaper.
When I was a college student myself, I wrote into and for my alma mater’s paper, starting with the occasional commentary and ending with a weekly column. On more than one occasion, what I wrote was a response to someone else’s opinion, giving my thoughts as to why, well, that person might not be thinking as clearly as he should. It had even been hinted to me that I seemed to have a personal grudge against one particular writer. (While the erstwhile editor — and current friend — did and still does joke about it, a professor also mentioned that fact to me while I was there.)
Now, as a staff member and “servant” to the students, it would be imprudent (see?) to write the same type of responses I would have as a student. In fact, it probably is advisable for me to leave the campus newspaper editorial section to the students from now on.
Yet, I am an opinion writer, I do have opinions, and occasionally I run into something that fires me up so much, thoughts run through my head and my fingers seem to desperately need to take to a keyboard to get them out.
Though I still realize that while this is the case, unlike when I write about articles posted on Yahoo! News or even letters to the editor in local newspapers, linking to and quoting anything from the newspaper at the campus I’m on is less than the best idea. So as much as I want you to read the exact column and particular quotes that raised my ire, I know I shouldn’t. Hence, paraphrasing is about as good as I can do for you, which is disappointing, to say the least.
But again, sometimes I simply have to write.
(more…)