Box-dumpers show intellectual cowardice
During spring break, while fellow students were away partaking in drunken, boob-flashing revelry in such dystopic hellholes as Cancun, Mexico and Daytona Beach, Fla., unknown individuals decided they could have a more rockin’ time by dumping boxes of the Oregon Commentator. This trashing of issues has not been the first time, and I fear it shall not be the last.
The Oregon Commentator has been on campus for 21 years, which is quite an achievement for an all-volunteer publication; yet nary a year goes by that our boxes go un-dumped. The intellectual cowards who have performed these acts over the years are setting a terrible precedent on this campus.
Yes, we are a conservative/libertarian publication on a predominantly liberal campus, but I assumed this was “The Marketplace of Ideas,” a bastion of the Socratic dialectic. I was, it seems, mistaken. This recent case underscores a major problem facing this university: Discourse is discouraged in favor of banal acts of self-indulgent symbolism.
You may not agree with the Oregon Commentator’s political views, or you may find our humor to be sophomoric (which should come as a compliment to our freshman staffers). But those are not reasons to interfere with the free dissemination of ideas. If you find yourself in disagreement, then try articulating your ideas instead of resorting to petty acts of vandalism. Box-dumping should not be tolerated, for it usurps the right of University students to read a publication funded by the incidental fee.

Tyler Graf

senior

journalism

Managing Editor,

Oregon Commentator