Yes we can (write)

Whether by perception or design, the opinion section currently functions as an oligopoly of columnists with a small pool of guest contributors. As opposed to a free-market approach, the current system promotes inefficiency and indolence, with usually uninspired columnists forced to write on a fixed schedule. Hence, in the opinion section we find ourselves for the most part staring at recycled refuse and quoting Bill O’Reilly’s “There’s no words there” (and perhaps a bit more).

I don’t advocate a dishonorable discharge for all of the columnists, but I think it is time for us to step up. Princeton is home to 5,000 undergraduates alone, and most of them are passionate, coherent writers about some topic, within the margin of error of a few careless college-essay evaluators in the admission office. Even so, all freshmen are then required to take a writing seminar, in which we are well indoctrinated in the art of prose. (I only got a B, though, so I suggest that the more critical among you stop reading here.) My point is that in theory, the talent should exist. And in practice, if more of us take the time to volunteer and write, then the ‘Prince’ opinion staff will be overwhelmed with contributions and be pressed to rethink its current article paradigm.

It’s not enough simply to encourage you to write for the ‘Prince’ opinion section. Were that the case, I would not be writing this article in the first place. I recognize that there are several explanations why capable writers elect to condemn and not to contribute to the ‘Prince.’ Besides the negligible factor of time, I have identified and will counter the three main reasons:

1. “You believe that the ‘Prince’ is an inferior newspaper and/or you don’t want your name associated with it.” As the publisher of the Princeton Tory, I could not agree more. But sooner or later — if you win an award, are involved in any extracurricular activity on campus, or happen to be besties with a news reporter struggling for a story — the ‘Prince’ will immortalize you in its electronic annals. And if you are mentioned at all, then you might as well have your voice heard.

2. “You are afraid of anonymous online comments.” This is a fear with which all of us must cope. For in the information age, anonymous hate is inevitable. I know of a faculty member who decided never to contribute again to the ‘Prince’ after reading one article’s malicious comments. Frankly, if I were a professor being sniped at by a bunch of cowardly brats, I would agree. Since I’m a student, however, I couldn’t care less. College is all about putting yourself out there, learning how to deal with criticism, and taking a crash course in self-humiliation.

If this article earns any comments at all (and that’s a big “if”), I expect that about half of them will call me a conservative nut-job, a quarter will question my sexual orientation, and a quarter more will be written by backhandedly congratulatory alumni who have nothing better to do. I don’t hope for these sorts of comments, but I expect them. And it’s OK; in a way, you and I need these anonymous comments. At some point in life — especially if you are ambitious — you will experience character defamation. What better way to encounter it first than in a student newspaper that no one reads?

3. “You don’t think that your article will be published.” And yet mine was? It was quite obvious that the opinion section is desperate to get decent writers when it accepted an article from a 2010 Princeton applicant from India who bizarrely decided to tell Princeton “Varsity” students how hard Princeton is. Or when hours of panic ensued in the news room last month after the Princeton Committee on Palestine decided to run a column on its hummus referendum on a different day. If these articles and mine can be published, then so can yours.

Together we can change the system. We can make The Daily Princetonian opinion section our own, a place for the free exchange of wisdom and critique. To borrow directly from our most revered and unaccomplished one-term president: “It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of our (University): Yes we can (write).”

Aaron Smargon is an astrophysics major from La Jolla, Calif. He can be reached at asmargon@princeton.edu.

Editor’s Note: While we disagree with the writer’s characterization of our columnists as indolent and of the opinion section as “desperate to get decent writers,” we do echo his call for more contributors. The ‘Prince’ prides itself as a forum for a range of student opinion and works to provide a voice to every student (and the occasional applicant from India).