A number of people have contacted me personally already about my e-mail on the UNDERCURRENT and my disappointment over the front page's mocking OU progressive protest efforts as irrelevant. I've received responses which were pretty much supportive to responses which agreed with me somewhat but disliked the intense dismay I'd expressed over the current situation -- but what most of them wanted was to know my suggestions on what we should do about this. sigh. All right. For those who have asked my advice, for those who have agreed but regretted my intensity, and even for those who wondered why I would even give a damn about the UNDERCURRENT anymore : .....1) I've had people privately agreeing with my concern but no one speaking up publically. We need to avoid elephant-ignored-in-the-living- room syndrome here. .....2) With everyone with whom I've spoken, there are rumors and different recollections, but I have yet to find anyone who knows and reveals exactly what is going on with the UNDERCURRENT these days. The SSEC office looks like it's been turned into someone's dorm room for an UNDERCURRENT editor, with little evidence of the SSEC left in the office we'd offered to share with the paper, but I've no idea whose personal effects are in there. There is a similar mystery due to the plethora of pseudonyms used in each issue. This leads in to another issue: .....3) There seems to be a lack of trust of the editorial staff at this point. I've spoken with several progressives who write well, and not one of them feels comfortable with submitting anything to the UNDERCURRENT in part because of the confusing mystery and the pseudonyms -- and after reading the recent front page, no one seems certain that his or her sincere submissions won't become further fodder for the anonymous "Max Factor". I hear complaints that their submissions have been ignored due to political games from editor favoritism, and though I do not know the degree to which such complaints may be true or false, I know they are repeated by a lot of people. All of this can be addressed only with an end to the mystery and the pseudonymous anonymity -- but most importantly, this can best be addressed with evidence of the good faith and trustworthiness of the editors of this paper. "Max Factor"'s front page article was not good evidence of this, unfortunately. I guess what we need is talk and respect. I have all but given up on hope of that, especially after reading that front page article, but the responses I've received have convinced me that it may still not be too late for talk and that the front page article may be an abberant lapse in respect. I leave the proving of this in the hands of the editors of the UNDERCURRENT. Is it too late? For years, I'd enjoyed reading the UNDERCURRENT. I have been attending OU since the UNDERCURRENT began. I remember such marvelous works as the twin articles, "Jesus Awareness Week Offends Non-Christians" and "Jesus Awareness Week Offends Christians", articles which were still being talked about two years later. I recall the rumor that the FOUNTAINHEAD was named in part because a fountainhead is a near-opposite of an undercurrent. The UNDERCURRENT was so open-minded a newspaper that it even printed a series of articles by a politically-incorrect conservative. Meanwhile, the FOUNTAINHEAD has intensified its agenda of mockery, anti-progressive spiels, and snide attempts at humor, exploiting the events of 11 September to make the campus even nastier for progressives, minorities, and any and all voices of dissent. In such a time as this, it really bothers me to witness this sort of thing going on with the newspaper which had been the voice and venue of the campus progressives. I hope this helps. [please forward, including to the OUrEarth and SWSS listservs, both of which I can't reach right now for some reason] __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Find the one for you at Yahoo! Personals http://personals.yahoo.com