Use Your Voice: Living In A Facebook World

If you don’t think Facebook has changed the world, take a look at the letter to the editor section. What used to be one of the more popular sections of the paper is now nearly non-existent. Of course we still have our columns and guest opinions in the opinions page. You just don’t see responses to those opinions anymore. Why? Well I argue the internet has changed it all.

Two weeks ago, our Hinsdale sports correspondent and contributing Opinion page columnist wrote a piece on gay marriage. I spoke to him myself and said that I didn’t think he had a popular view; I myself disagreed with his view. I told him we might see some responses to that column. He replied, “Good, I hope we do.”

So the week ran out, I didn’t have a single response to that opinion. I thought to myself, maybe my opinion was one of unpopularity? That evening, I pop onto my Facebook scouting out news stories, tidbits from friends and family and low and behold a stream of comments on the opinion from the paper. It seems, quite an outpouring of people were with me on disagreement. Unfortunately some of the comments I saw made me feel like our culture has changed so much, due to the internet, that rather than react vocally, we rather just react on our own internet land.

Comments from wanting to completely quit reading the paper, to not wanting to respond to someone with such an opinion, to some opinions should not be allowed.

So, I thought, perhaps it would be a great time to remind people about the power of the community paper. The reason opposing views are welcomed, the reason responses are good and the reason that opinion page should continue.

Those who have gone to college will remember those lectures that lead to discussion. The professors purposely looked for students to oppose a view. Why? Well, it gets you thinking. Discussion and arguments lead to further research, they force us to look at an opposing view, they more importantly make us think. I argue that getting rid of opposing opinions is not only getting rid of free speech, but it takes away our ability to think about a topic more in depth.

Standing back and saying, “It’s not worth my time to argue,” for me is like saying I don’t care to address something I’m passionate about. In this particular topic of same-sex marriage, for me it’s incredibly important. I have a gay uncle-in-law, I have many friends from high school that are gay, some of my best friends and confidants have been gay, or bi-sexual. I can name several important people in my life that made such an important impact on me who were just a little different. To sit back and not say anything at all is like allowing someone to think they are right.

As I’m a writer for the local community, I wasn’t born and raised here, I fully expected someone to stand up for their neighbors, their local friends. I can’t be expected to defend a community every time, when I’ve only been a part of it for just over a year.

Unfortunately in generations to come, the opinion will display in the paper, with no follow up letter to the editorial. If you look at the historical impact, someone may look at the paper 100 years from now and think that it must have been a community belief or view.

I saw arguments on how those opinion pieces are displayed. I think the big and bold letters on the top that state “opinion” should be enough for people to take note that it is in fact an opinion. Because a staff member writes an opinion does not mean that it stands for the paper’s opinion. That’s why his name and photo are listed, not “The Courier.”

The last thing I’d like to address is that some opinions shouldn’t be allowed. That one gives me shivers. Are we truly raising a generation that believes that there should be gag orders on opinions you don’t stand for? Look at China, how students are fighting for their rights to simple opinions. Just to speak out against your own government can be deadly. Let’s think about the slippery slope that gagging one opinion could lead to. You may start small; perhaps from now on we allow no words that are anti-gay. While I’d be content with that, think about the other side, the side that truly does believe that there are a lot of serious things that should get a second look. Would you want to be on that side if we took away that right to speak?

I had friends this week show up to the Boise State Capitol to watch the “Add the Words” bill hearing. Some of those friends went to jail about a year ago because they stood in the capitol to get legislators to add the words that would allow no more discrimination in the work place and in the state for those who are gay. They have placed editorials in the paper, they’ve given letters to legislators, and they’ve done everything they could to get the phrase “Add the Words” out there. That hearing yesterday, included both sides voicing opinions to legislators.

Without the freedom of speech, what kind of world will we live in? Is Facebook truly a public platform to voice that opinion? In some ways yes, but if I’m not your friend on Facebook, or maybe I’ve blocked your posts because I get tired of seeing what you ate for dinner every day, I won’t see those important opinions. Neither will the rest of your local public.

Community papers are something I’m truly passionate about. It’s a place for public notices, a place full of expression, a place where you can see what’s going on locally and a place where you can see your freedoms in action. I urge the public to send in a letter to the editor, it’s free. It’s as free as your right to speak.