Eminent Domain

I recently read a copy of the new independent campus newspaper The Warrior. I didn't get to see the first issue and only briefly looked over their web version, so this was my first true exposure to it. I'm very impressed. After reading about the "controversy" concerning issue #1 on the other Marquette blogs, I was expecting a junior version of The National Review. I was expecting blind partisanship, blatantly skewed coverage, slander against Democrats, and a full page devoted to worshipping Barry Goldwater (which I am in favor of for a future edition). That's not what The Warrior is about though. It's a student newspaper. They cover campus events, local news, entertainment, sports, and all of the other stuff that one would expect in a student paper. There are opinion pieces, but every newspaper has those. Maybe, just maybe, the people who have been apoplectic about The Warrior are exaggerating just a little about it. They reviewed Rent! There must be some right wing ideological purpose behind that! How devious...

My favorite article was Beyond Busch Light: An Adventure in Brewology. Beer enthusiast that I am, I love to see beers being discussed and compared. If wine can be talked about in a critical and intellectual way, then beer can be treated in the same manner. You can tell a lot about a person by what they drink. If you drink Busch Light, you have no taste and probably lack the proper amount of judgment to function successfully in society. Seriously, it's disgusting. And don't say "Well, I can get a lot of it really cheap." It's cheap to eat out of garbage cans too. You shouldn't be averse to throwing down some cash to buy a respectable beer. My urine probably has more flavor and a higher alcohol content after a night of drinking good beer than Busch Light has in it.

I also noticed this quote from Diana Sroka's Letter from the Editor...

Perhaps this is the unfortunate effect of a campus culture in which a different opinion is sometimes viewed as heretical and an outspoken student is considered a bigot.

Hey, I remember that. I was involved in that. Good times, great memories...

The criticism of The Warrior reminded me of my favorite Teddy Roosevelt quote...

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face in marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Being a critic is easy. It takes no risk and no real effort, especially if you're doing it through a blog. Believe me, I know from personal experience. I admire the staff of The Warrior for putting in the time and effort to produce something. I admire them even more for standing out in the cold to hand out copies. That's dedication. Maybe I should submit an opinion piece to The Warrior...