Letters to the editor are what makes opinion fun

Sometimes I make comments or jokes that hit on a sensitive subject. Every now and then, I offend people.

My two favorite sensitive subjects to comment on are Christianity and pot – and when I’m feeling really naughty, I marry the two and talk about Christians who smoke pot. In my opinion, discussions about Christianity and illicit drug use make for a pretty fun time – as expected, my opinion isn’t shared by all.

For every letter to the editor I receive praising me for speaking up on behalf of atheists in a religious community, I receive two asserting that my opinion is irrelevant in regards to the truth.

I think this is awesome.

Letters to the editor – even those that disagree with my opinion – are cool for a number of reasons.

The first and most important reason being that it shows people are reading. More than just being excited to see people picking up the paper, though, I am overjoyed to see readers fired up enough to respond.

I don’t write editorials with an intent to piss people off because I think it’s fun, I write editorials because I have an opinion.

It should be noted that The Broadside has an entire section called “Views” in which opinion pieces and letters to the editor are printed. This is pretty easy to figure out for yourself but I’ve gotten quite a few letters criticizing my editorials and calling them biased.

Last week I received a letter in which its author expressed concern over the fact that I didn’t state anywhere in my editorial that God being 420 friendly is my opinion. Well, I would hope people would know that editorials on the “Views” page are the biased opinion of the author.

Then again, I suppose that’s an assumption and we all know what happens when you assume.

Another letter I received last week criticized my editorial because it doesn’t represent the opinion of the student body. I am in no way a representative of the entire student body and my opinion will continue to be my opinion regardless of how many people are for or against it. That is the wondrous beauty of an opinion section.

But what makes the opinion section most glorious are the letters to the editor. I have the right to publish my opinion – regardless of who it speaks on behalf of – just like you, the readers, have the right to respond.

Some readers exercise this right more than others, and to those few loyal letter writers, I say thank you for offering me a perspective outside of my own – the disagreements have been fun.

While I genuinely look forward to the responses I get from the regular letter writers, I am anxious to find out where all those other opinionated opinions are. The “Views” page is here for your voice.

You may contact Whitney Beyer at wbeyer@cocc.edu