How does that statement make you feel?

You may feel it is an abomination that RPI students are participating in such lude behavior. You may also believe that those particular activities are perfectly acceptable for college students.

Consider the power of language in shaping your emotions toward this subject. Five activities are listed, increasing the chances that you will have an opinion about one of them. The use of statistics adds to the statement’s credibility.

One can use language in a newspaper to address needed changes or to stimulate ideas about a topic. A few weeks ago, someone approached me about Peter Baldwin’s article on hazing in the February 29 issue of The Polytechnic. He fervently played the IFC party line by taking the opinion that the article was absolutely ludicrous and unfounded. That attitude upsets me because a person’s article should be used as a basis for intelligent discussion. He further commented that since Baldwin is greek, he shouldn’t have written that article. However, his greek affiliation is the very reason he should write about a sensitive topic often involving greeks. Baldwin succeeded in using the power of language to evoke emotion.

I have written articles on drinking in fraternities and have been approached afterward by other greeks asking why I would write about that. My answer is simply that I am interested in the set of issues surrounding the topic, and what better way to explore that interest than write an article in the newspaper about it?

If you have a problem with me discussing underage drinking, rather than telling me that my article doesn’t meet a party line, you should write a “Letter to the Editor,” start a movement to lower the drinking age, or become a political figure who can make those changes. Make a difference not by being angry, but by actually doing something about your stance on the issue.

It is your responsibility to act on emotions from a newspaper article in a positive way, rather than complaining to a member of The Poly staff. Use any article as fuel for intellectual debates. Use articles that anger you to make changes in the world. Then use articles that make you happy to reaffirm the value of the world in which you live.

Now that you are willing to do something to help the world, the first paragraph is entirely fictitious. None of those activities occur on our campus in such abundance, and those statistics aren’t independently verified by three sources.