The Red and Black

Issue date: 1/22/08 Section: Opinions

Plea for First Amendment unrealistic

Recently, I was flipping through The Red & Black and saw the column titled, "Expulsion for protest unfair." I fully understand the need to have our First Amendment rights protected, but I believe the safety of a campus is more important.

Peaceful protesting is one thing, but when you post that an upcoming campus facility should be named in memory of the university president, that's another. The president of Valdosta State University did what he thought was best for the university.

I also would like to mention that I recently transferred from VSU and the parking there was hellacious. All I ever heard around campus was, "When are they going to build parking decks? I'm tired of getting parking tickets." President Ronald M. Zaccari finally initiates the construction of a new parking deck and someone actually protests the idea. Go figure.

RICK HARRIS
Sophomore, Valdosta
Biology

English language flexible, not stiff

In response to Jay Graham's column on Thursday, "Buzz Words ruin English Language":

First and foremost, everything he asserted as truth was simply arbitrary, and under those circumstances, I would beg justification. However, his argument is more like an attempted slam on contemporary language, than a constructive argument.

While that's all fine and well, there are some problems. Initially, the flexibility of the English language is a good thing. If it didn't possess this characteristic our literary arts would be very limited. I assume since you dislike alleged "misuse" of the English language, you consequently also dislike Shakespeare, Chaucer, Faulkner, etc… Your inability to see utility in the flexibility of our language reflects your one-dimensional understanding of language.

Language, analytically may be concerned only with syntax, but it's an expression of emotion, and by virtue of that expression, it has to be flexible in order to represent something as indeterminable as emotion.

Not to sound like a logical person, but "random" can be used correctly in, "This random guy came up to me." First, context is important, but let us suppose the speaker is a store owner in a town of a hundred, where everyone knows everyone. The first hour he's open he has the same six people approach him everyday (creating a pattern of sorts).

And a stranger, by virtue of being unknown, breaks the pattern and then is random to the situation. The more limits you attempt to place on language, the more exceptions you arrive at. Quit thinking one-dimensionally.

BLAKE WEATHERLY
Freshman, Macon
Philosophy

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