Op-Ed: What Orono and my cat have in common

I love my puppy too.

I didn’t read your article, but I perused it. After all, it was hundreds of words about your cat with some random associations to the world thrown in.

Are there any students from Haiti at UM?
I wonder how people here struggled to get through that earthquake, hard times.

ZzZz…

So, you are a Sagittarius huh?
Cool.

Do you like Italian food?

You wanna go out on Friday?

… O_o …

Wait!

Oh, I’m sorry.

I was reading the Maine Campus and then I must have fell asleep. I dreamt somebody was telling me a story about their cat. For a moment there I thought I was on OK Cupid talking with some Sagittarius chick

Phew, I’m sure glad Spike is OK.
You gotta watch out for those cat poachers.

O_o

The Maine Campus ladies and gents, The Maine Campus.

Hi Jun,
Yes, there is a student from Haiti at UMaine. His name is Lucner Charlestra and I read about him in The Maine Campus:

http://mainecampus.com/2010/01/21/disaster-in-haiti-umaine-student-lucner-charlestra-speaks-on-the-devastation-in-his-homeland/

The Maine Campus, ladies and gents, The Maine Campus.

“I didn’t read your article, but I perused it”

how do you peruse an article without reading it?

Besides the Narcoleptic critics, I found this article moving. I fail to see the need to attack pieces that are hardly controversial. Why assail an opinion that fails to offend?

If there is something within this article that is objectionable, or offensive, then fair game for off-color, contrary, barley legible, horribly un-intellectual cracks.

The author is apart of a community, the author attempts to relate this community to something she loves. There is no entry way to condescension and aggression.

Orono is a community that knows its neighbors, and furthermore, cherishes these neighbors. Storming an attempt to clarify or explain this to someone who clearly refuses to be apart of a community, both geographically or intellectually, creates a poor, ambiguous, anonymous internet comment.

It is not easy to put oneself out in the public like Rhiannon has. Let’s try to foster these opinions rather than demolish them.

Cheers to Spike and Rhiannon.

Terrance Paine (do you feel it?)

Peruse is a Janus word.
Apparently, when you searched for the definition you didn’t read the second entry. The context gives away the meaning.

So, that’s how.

Homer says,
“Doh!
stupid English language with contradictory meanings for the same word.”

I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings. I thought that this was a college student newspaper. I thought that I might be able to come and read something here, something that stimulates my intellect, perhaps get a student’s viewpoint on some important issue. I didn’t realize that this was a forum for drivel.

Well, now I know.

I’m assailing the writer because I expect more. I demand a greater effort from her. If she is going to bother to put the time into putting words to the digital page then at least try, at least make the slightest effort to report something.

“What Orono and my cat have in common” requires as much intelligence as the story that the children in the elementary school down the street are being asked to write for tomorrow’s homework.

As lovely as spike is, I’m sure, I’d rather see something more stimulating from Rhiannon than her talking about her pussy.

Jun, is all you do insult people? About everything on every article? Can nothing/nobody meet your standards?

Not true, but I am finding myself criticizing a lot of the time when I’m here. I don’t like it either. I want to be positive.

My reaction to this piece, and many other things I’ve read here lately, is anger at how little effort goes into this quote unquote paper.

The Boston Phoenix is more substantial, the National Enquirer more entertaining, and receipts on the ground outside the Brewer Wal-Mart convey more useful information.

We deserve more from our student newspaper. I refuse to believe that this is the best that the campus newspaper has to offer. There are stories out there, not even hidden, and all it takes is a little bit of interest, a little bit of pride, and a little bit of work to write an enlightening piece on something newsworthy.

Finances, student life, crime, the hardships facing off campus students/commuters, Orono politics and the consolidation of power, the Orono selectmen and their plans for UMaine, traffic congestion and plans to remedy it, Dennis Cross (a dangerous leech to UM students or a great landlord?), environmental vs development concerns, the proposed destruction of Orono forest for yet another shitty student housing complex, Orchard Trails – is it working?, administrative salaries – wasting your money, the recent UMaine layoffs, the f’ng economy, the continuing wars, israel vs palestine, the state of California, the fact that Maine has not one single Allopathic Medical Program and UMS’ plans to institute one, the corruption of Olympia Snowe’s office and the issue of her being a republican in a mostly democratic state, the unemployment rate, the new student loan debate in congress tied to the healthcare bill, the rising cost of living on campus and the lack of value campus students face, the pathetic meal plans and their exorbitant cost, the source of the cafeteria’s food suppliers (organic? I think not), Bovine growth hromone rBgh and Monsanto, alcohol on campus by underage youth, student governmet and their denial of just how terribly wrong they all are (sucking up the better part of a million dollars per year of our money for what?), the lack of oversight of student government by UMaine (is this a contributing factor to Dean Loredo’s termination – he supported oversight), the powerful people who pull the strings on UM finances DO NOT HAVE YOUR BEST INTEREST IN MIND, college ave and the state of fraternity property, the state of greek life at UM in general, is the UM mission to diversify the student population working (has it been sidelined?), who’s the next UM President going to be and will he be as useless as the last one?

Jun-
The oped pages are designed to be a public student forum for any student who wants to contribute. Given your deep concern for the quality of the newspaper, the clear willingness and time you have to write your opinions, and your never-ending font of ideas, you would make a perfect oped writer. The amount of time you have spent attacking Rhiannon and Mario could have been spent educating the rest of the campus about these deep, important issues of yours. By wasting your time attacking an article you find insignificant, you’re robbing the campus of your extraordinary insights into pressing issues and events.

These are the same people who write articles. Way to be misleading.

Jun;
My name is Eryk. I’m the only Eryk on the entire UM campus. My name was attached to that comment. I highly doubt anyone was mislead, and I’m not going to be chided for using my real name by a student who doesn’t have the guts to do the same.

My point stands: With your degree of concern and awareness of the issues, why don’t you contribute writing that would improve the paper?

Hi Eryk,

I wasn’t referring to you as a writer. So, you are correct in that you won’t be chided. Perhaps you weren’t aware that the people you are defending are regular contributors to the Maine Campus, but that was your deception.

However, your description of the Op-Ed section isn’t true, both Rhiannon and Mario are staff, and I imagine you are aware of that.

My point stands as well.

I don’t write for the Maine campus, not articles anyway.
It takes much less time to deconstruct an article here than it would for me to write one. I don’t have the time to write a good article. I’m not in journalism. I shouldn’t have to do my own work and the work of journalism students in order to be able to read an engaging and thoughtful piece which is relevant to the UM student community.

Hi Jun –
Staff contributes to the op-ed pages, that doesn’t mean that other students can’t.