Editorial A Humble Thanks

Author: Jonathan White

We want to commend Janine Knight '03, Toni Spence '04, Kiki Taylor '03 and Naima Gregory '03 for organizing a town meeting Sunday evening on the topic of diversity issues in this newspaper, on campus and in our society. It is laudable that members of our community came together with valid, constructive comments. The Campus believes that concerns raised will help us bring about better coverage of diversity events and issues. We are committed to this goal, as we are towards encouraging a dialogue on diversity matters as they affect students at Middlebury College.

As the Middlebury community proceeds, a lesson to take from Sunday's town meeting was that it set a tone for discussions of complex issues affecting our lives as students. It was respectful, a quality students cannot lose sight of in both speaking their minds and listening to others.

President John McCardell stated in October prior to Ari Fleischer '82 address at Mead Chapel that our community holds "profound differences" on matters of U.S. foreign policy. These differences extend to other matters of politics, culture and society. McCardell said, too, last fall that the freedom of speech is bound with the courtesey of the freedom to listen. With this in mind, we hope that debate continues here at Middlebury as we confront two pressing national issues: the future of affirmative action in the University of Michigan Supreme Court case, as well as the possible consequences of American action against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

In the progression of debate on these topics at Middlebury, we hope to hear both sides and to hear fair, informed opinions voiced. We cannot, in the process, lose sight of the Constitutional right to the freedom of speech, the freedom of the press and to McCardell's additional point concerning the freedom to listen. Finally, may debate be robust so as to unravel any notions that our campus or our generation is apathetic.

In addition, too often we tend to shy away from discussing contentious issues. We have on our opinions page this week a diversity of perspectives. These pages remain open to all students wishing to write on topics that are significant to them. Let discussion, however, not be limited to The Campus. A town meeting on the war in Iraq planned for Thursday evening should be another venue. We also hope that a larger discussion of affirmative action can take place in a forum of students and faculty later this semester.