Justin Dennis
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
There is a time and a place to humiliate the very people who are trying to be your friends, and there is a time and a place not to. A perfect example of a time and place not to do this is at six in the morning in the amphitheater.
Honestly, I don’t care if you want to degrade yourself by walking around in matching outfits, carrying shields and shouting, “SIR YES SIR!” every time you encounter one of your owners—yeah, they basically own you—but you could at least do it at a decent hour when everyone is awake or at least do it far enough away that you don’t wake anyone up.
You see, I’ve already woken up to three separate shouting matches, despite keeping my windows shut and turning on a fan for white noise. No matter what I do, the “SIR YES SIR!” yells penetrate the walls of my dorm and wake me up. I even hear the occasional insult—which is probably too vulgar to be printed—being shouted by who I would assume to be the actives of the society. I can’t think of a more dignified activity to welcome the newcomers into your group.
Loudly-yelling pledges, I understand that you are merely spineless sheep only doing as your owners tell you to in order to fulfill your insecurities, but insult-hurling actives, you should be more considerate of the campus that allows you to exist. Or maybe you’re still upset that you were banned for sexual harassment. Either way, you really need to figure out a better time and place to dehumanize your pledges.
The other societies seem to manage somehow. I’ve never had my sleep interrupted by another society, even if they do all walk around in laughable matching outfits. Now this isn’t a personal attack on anyone—I don’t hate you just because you’re in a society or are pledging. I simply find the pledging system to be thoroughly deranged, especially when it wakes me up so early.
If your pledging process doesn’t interfere with my sleep, you’re alright in my book. Take a note from the other societies and keep the early morning shouting to a minimum.
What is this, your diary?
Just because you’re EIC does not mean you should be airing your opinions so nonchalantly like the QC is a blog. Yes, we all have freedom of speech, but just because you have easy access by running a newspaper, does not give you the right to run some space filling article about a small qualm you have, especially as the EIC.
Opinions articles need to be researched too. They’re not just open space, free for all, for bashing. Great, you feel this way, feel obligated to write something constructive. Im sure tons of people feel the same way as you do– go find them, find some background on what’s really going on with pledging (and even other societies maybe you don’t hear), and get back to us.
Thanks
I agree with Jade. You should have more respect for the position you have and be more concerned with your professional integrity than you are with a bunch of college kids doing what college kids do. When you leave the bubble of Whittier and try to get a job in journalism, what do you want prospective employers to see? An unprofessional editor, or someone who can form a coherent, cohesive argument backed by hard research and facts? Make the choice before you shoot yourself in the foot.
Best of luck from one of those “sheep” you mentioned
P.S. – If there was even one black person in their pledge class, you’d have been fired already.
Must be nice being able to sleep in past 6am. Instead of complaining about getting woken up at 6am, try talking to the thousands of veterans who would love nothing more than to SLEEP IN until 6am, but instead are out there in the dirt, staying up all night, or, at best, waking up at 4am so that you can go to your fancy college, earn your fancy degree, and sit up on your throne, talking down to those you feel are lesser than yourself. It’s guys like that who give you your right to print what you want here.