I would hate to write for a newspaper that has already been brightly labeled as highly liberal. I would like to think that my views are more on the conservative side. What is most discouraging to me is the idea of polarizing the student body of East Tennessee State University by making a strict claim to be one or the other.
It is my view that our inability to release our grasp on polarity in politics and social views is a weakness that impedes our social and intellectual advancement.
George Washington, the most prominent forefather of our nation, even warned us that partisanship would be the downfall of this country. Yet, we allowed capitalism to blur our vision even then.
As students, if we stake our claim to be one stereotype or another, we are shorting ourselves of valuable lessons and experiences.
I would not be so na’ve to ask that labels such as Republican, Democrat, liberal and conservative be dropped from our vocabulary, we are not advancing that quickly. However, it saddens me to think that we would restrict ourselves in this way by making our news and our sources one-sided.
I am a newcomer to the East Tennessean. Perhaps, because I have had many different experiences or because I am a somewhat older student, I believe our news should be a balance of views.
Our newspaper should be an installation of this university which opens the eyes of its students to new ideas and views, even allowing them to become involved in our community in ways they would not have before. But it should, in no way, limit the perspective of its readers.
I feel I should introduce myself. I spent five years on active duty as a United States Marine. I completed two deployments, one to the western Pacific and the other to Iraq.
Although I have a tendency to hold more conservative views, I label myself neither as a conservative nor a Republican. I do not label myself as independent because that would be contradictory to my claim that all labels are handicaps.
Rather, I believe in reason and logic. After all, our country has progressed quite well in that arena. My flaw, as those who know me personally would most likely state, is my avid patriotism.
The idea itself has blurred boundaries in that my mother is from the United Kingdom and nearly my entire family resides there. So you should not fear that I wear star-spangled blinders.
Now you know what to expect from me.
I ask only that you read my columns, consider the facts and views within, and take something from it to assist in your personal growth or the refining of your personal opinions, however different from mine they may be.
A cynic, I am not. A humanitarian, I am very much. I do have strong opinions.
I also have a brain, which allows me to take new information, stir it around with all the rest in my head, and create new blends of opinions.
It takes a variety of viewpoints to keep news interesting.
The cynics have their angle of view and I, ever the table-turner, have mine.
You are left to choose with what you wish to flavor your mind. The best taste is that which is interesting, complex, and ever-changing.

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