Opinions can be found all around; put them in print

  Cuauhtemoc Ortega Ortega, a third-year
English and political science student, is the 2001-2002 Viewpoint
editor. Are you strange enough to be a columnist? E-mail him at
[email protected].

Why are you so strange? That’s usually my first thought
when I meet and interact with a person for the first time. Does
this mean I’m judgmental? Not really. The fact is, people are
strange ““ even you.

I don’t believe in ghosts, but I do believe in the
haunting presence your opinions have on me all the time. Perhaps
you’ve felt this way too. The situation has become so
complicated, that buying a hamburger now involves breaching
everyone’s ideology.

You can’t buy a hamburger at a fast-food chain, because
anti-corporate liberals will leer at you for oppressing developing
nations.

You’ll solicit similar looks of disapproval from religious
people for not saying a prayer of thanks before eating the
hamburger.

And when you finally take a bite, vegetarians will remind you of
the cruel death the cow in your hamburger endured to satisfy your
savage, carnivorous appetite.

But if you follow any of these groups’ beliefs, moderates
will call you a zealot or an extremist.

The joy.

But it’s not people’s beliefs I find strange ““
its the fact that everyone is convinced they have the correct
answer to the same problem.

It’s strange that, even though we can’t agree on the
correct way of eating a hamburger, UCLA ““ a conglomerate of
more than 36,000 opinions ““ continues to function.

And there’s only one place on campus where the diversity
of opinion and the intensity of ideas is represented: The
Bruin’s Viewpoint section.

The Viewpoint section is an open forum for students, professors,
faculty, staff and all other members of the UCLA community to
express their beliefs about issues affecting all of us, regardless
of how strange others may find those beliefs.

With a circulation above 50,000, the Daily Bruin is the most
effective means you have of communicating with everyone in the UCLA
community ““ we welcome you to use it.

There are many ways this can be done: whether it’s by
applying to be a columnist, a cartoonist, by writing an Op-Ed or by
simply writing a short letter in response to someone else’s
viewpoint or one of our editorials.

And don’t succumb to the false notion that Viewpoint is
only a political arena.

While it does include political discussion, Viewpoint is a
section for whatever you want to talk about, whether it be
President George W. Bush, saving an endangered species of shrimp,
Murphy Hall, roommates, parking, dating, sex, construction or
country music.

It’s your section: do with it as you please.

The Viewpoint editors this year will take a proactive role in
making sure as many sides of an issue as possible are presented to
the campus.

We will do this by giving fair, unbiased consideration to all
content submitted and by soliciting opinion articles from members
of the UCLA community so as to assure balance in the paper.

The Viewpoint section is not just for undergraduate students,
either. Anyone ““ whether you’re a graduate student in
computer science, a law student, a surgeon, a chancellor, a worker
at a campus restaurant or an alumnus ““ is welcome to write to
us.

Don’t agree with cloning? Write to us. Don’t agree
with drilling in the arctic? Write to us. Want more student
services? Write to us. Think the dorm rooms are overcrowded? Write
to us. Want to change UCLA? Write to us. It’s the only way
we’ll figure out why we’re so strange.

So send your opinions to Viewpoint ““ and enjoy your
hamburger, in whatever way you choose to eat it.