The Sandspur

Issue date: 4/8/05 Section: Opinions

I have worked on The Sandspur since last semester and have enjoyed being a nitpicking copy editor working with a fine group every Tuesday night. Last week's issue was the best issue that we have done which I participated in. Reading through the copy I picked up at the library made me think about a few things.

"China Blamed for Everything" seems about right to me. In the last two plus decades China has pushed a win-win policy for its foreign partners and a capitalist economy, all the while minding its own business. Back in Jersey, local schools are planning huge building expansions which have been thrown haywire because China's booming economy is sucking up the world's building supplies. Of course, this results in higher prices, wrecks their budget and timetable, and gets everyone up in arms.

About two weeks ago, Crummer hosted a professor from The People's University in Beijing, which is one of the leading schools in China. Knowing that Americans are griping at China's ability to beat us at our own game, he noted that "competition is the most important thing we have learned from American culture" and urged us to "stand up," and compete with China.

As for Opinions, I noticed something interesting. "Totalitarianism" and "Error of My Ways" both arrived at the same conclusion, and yet they were supposed to be in conflict. "All will be equal for all people, and the best way to accomplish this utopian idea is for the federal government to control it," sounds an awful lot like "Decisions of importance would be made for you, no longer would bad decision-making have to hinder your life." Despite this near equality, the former was supposed to be "liberal" and the latter "fascist." We could dismiss this to one side's belief of the other's desire for control, or maybe they are both on to something.

Two of the most telling articles in the paper were the self-depreciating, and complementary, "More Copies of The Slantspur Soon To Appear in Newsstands" and "Slantspur Wins Pulitzer Prize." To start, one of the jokes is on us copy editors, as we always ensure an "error-free weekly."

But the real point belongs to Melissa Notreal, "The paper keeps me informed. It's helpful for my classes' current events assignments because I can get information from our school's paper." Surely, there are no two better examples of this then what was cited in the Pulitzer Prize article, which reminded us of the boat rocking, and harmless Cosmopolitan fluff of "Rollins on Being Sexy," as well as Jami Furo's confident and assertive op/ed's.

It would seem that these tidal surges have affected people who never took a look at the "Women's Interest" magazines of a national bookstore chain, stood in a grocery store line, listened to what our "leaders" on both sides of the aisle tell us, or noticed the dozens of other articles in our Arts & Entertainment and Opinions sections on such titanic issues as, pop music albums, crossword puzzles, or parking spaces. What next shall "spark controversy and increase our Letters to the Editor"? Who knew that our unprofessional and nontoxic sixteen page paper could cause such controversy?

You should read The Sandspur, your classmates make a lot of effort putting this paper together, and even though we won a Pulitzer, we're here just to have a good time; at least I am, anyway.

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