The editorial team at the Daily Forty-Niner would like to apologize to those individuals who might have perceived our harsher opinions as some personal vendetta against them.
We in no way meant to criticize any wrong-doing by said individuals. We simply wanted to use this gray canvas to inform the sleepy Cal State Long Beach community about certain activities that were taking place right under their noses.
For the past few months, a self-proclaimed dinosaur and a self-conscious artist-turned-writer, have tried to understand why certain activities by chosen people at The Beach were frequently being ignored, despite the unjust results. But we get it now. They were simply on-the-job mistakes. Nobody is perfect, Beachites.
We encouraged our contributors to go out and try to find these mistakes, which usually make for passionate editorial and creative anger sufficient to pick up a keyboard (our generation’s pen and pencil) and opine away their thoughts. Sometimes that isn’t all that happens to the keyboard when we get pissed.
We truly apologize for stepping up our game and must say that we meant no harm.
When people said that nothing much happens around this “commuter campus,” we wondered if our dedicated administrators and executive decision makers had bigger baggage than they cared to share with the student population. Our curiosity gets the best of us.
Sure, we may have started on the wrong foot with top CSU execs when we gave our humble opinion regarding the itty bitty 11.8 percent raise the board of trustees included in their paychecks. Our harsh approach regarding the scandal might have been seen as overly critical, but it was just a case of the curious cat finding a rabid rat.
Shame on you, California Faculty Association, for being the envious kid on the block and wanting a raise of your own.
In early October, we wondered what ever happened with the Hispanic Serving Institution grant that The Beach promised last year to use to help the Latina/o population. To our surprise, nothing had really been done except the mass production of a few thousand T-shirts.
T-shirts are a very important part of one’s clothing repertoire. Without them, after all, we’d be half-naked. We apologize for the inconvenience that the editorial may have caused. If only the OC Weekly would apologize and stop quoting us on that story.
Should we apologize for the times we criticized the Associated Students, Inc. about its few bad decisions this semester? We’re pretty sure that when it decided to install a tanning salon, a pizza parlor and a bank, instead of healthier food choices or a place for students to rest and listen to some music, the organization had its classmates’ best interests at heart.
Are we humbled that we spoke out about the ASI’s “CrackBerry” habit? Hard-working students who work really hard at working very hard deserve fancy communication devices paid for, regardless of where the money comes from.
We must not forget to apologize for our rudeness to a Kevlar-wearing guest and his lunatic organization. You guys were only trying to exercise your First Amendment right and what do we do? We go and rain on your parade by mentioning certain facts that you failed to post on your fliers. Shame on us.
In our defense, we also celebrated positive aspects about this town we call “El Beach.”
We praised professors for keeping up with technology and making sure that our generation goes beyond Facebook and MySpace, by implementing features such as filmmaking and blogging as part of their curricula.
We praised the women of CSULB, for excelling in fields such as teaching abroad, the arts, athletics, engineering and political science.
We also pushed for the equality of all races on campus and focused on the diversity that truly makes for an exciting environment, which beats the debts that result from studying abroad for similar learning experiences.
In fact, we celebrated and reported extensively the many accomplishments at CSULB this semester. Unfortunately, one or two boo-boos are what the old Band-Aids stick to.
Our hope is that, hurt feelings aside, this section of your student newspaper may have contributed to some change. If not visible, maybe we inspired some manner of deeper consciousness.
There are many things in this world that a journalist aims to cover in the hopes that it will lead to positive change.
For making people squirm in their seats while reading a Daily Forty-Niner – we’re so sorry.
