The backbone of America

Ever since I was a little kid, I have fought with anyone or anything that would fight back with me.

My mother can tell countless stories starting with, “Once she hit the terrible twos, she never left.”

After this continued the next 16 years, one decision was completely clear: I was destined to go to law school.

I could argue with a fence and convince myself logically that I had won.

What better than getting paid for what you do best?

Within the first week of my college career, my dreams were shattered as I quickly learned that political science and law school was not exactly where I needed to be.

Panic struck soon after; I had no “plan B.”

I had no idea where to go from this point.

I was 18 and had no future career.

Long story short, I found my way into the glorious Farley Hall and became a print journalism major with the intent of becoming a theatre critic in the West End.

Within a month of that, I got a job at The Daily Mississippian as an opinion columnist.

Three years later, I sit at my desk in the Student Media Center with my perfect job as your new opinion editor all because I never gave up arguing every opinion I’ve ever had.

There are very few jobs in the world where not only do I need to have an opinion but it is required of me five days a week.

I have always been fascinated by the power of the opinion section because of the effect it has on the public.

While there would be no opinion columns without those news stories to affect our emotions, no other section of the newspaper can draw an emotional response from a reader like the opinion section.

Every time I pick up the newspaper, I scan the headlines of news articles to see if I’m intrigued by any of the topics and flip immediately to the editorials.

It’s not that I don’t care about budget cuts or the new candidate for the Iowa Senate; I’m more interested in what people think of those educational budget cuts or how they feel about the candidate’s platform. The facts are not what run our society but the thoughts on how to handle them and where to go from there.

Our opinions are the most influential and important part of our political process.

Two candidates may read the same facts about our economy and will take their own viewpoints and turn their opinions into a platform.

From there, we choose to agree or disagree with a particular candidate’s opinions and push forward with the preservation of democracy.

If we were not allowed to voice our own opinions, no matter what they may be, we would no longer be living in a free and equal society.

Without the public’s opinion on everything and anything that the media deem important, changes could never be made for the betterment of the general population.

The fact that I am paid, in part by the university, to complain about its own policies and decisions is not only a true test of the strength of their administration but is a wonderful source of feedback for them to get a better understanding of how we feel as a whole.

A friend of mine once said, “Opinion wields way more power than people will admit, but without it we are all no better than being dead.”

I have been given an opportunity to inform the general public of my personal viewpoint on newsworthy events for the past three years.

Nothing has been more important to me than using my power to inform the University and Oxford population alike of my take on the world.

I am honored to be your opinion editor for the next 12 months and I hope I can engage you enough to incite an emotional response from you at least once.

If I can do that, then I have done my job.