Author:
A few weeks ago I wrote a letter to the editor. This letter:
“Oxy needs more of…
[insert picture of Beastie Boys here]
…THIS!”
Apparently, this letter was not good enough to get published, even though the Oxy Weekly is often times short of letters to the editor (LTEs). I didn’t realize that the Oxy Weekly was in the business of LTE profiling. Was it because of the picture, a picture that depicts three Jewish rappers from New York, who took hip-hop music and embraced and reshaped it in their own unique style? Or was it because of the lack of words? I once read that a picture is worth a thousand words. So in essence I wrote one thousand-and-five words, which I think more than constitutes a legitimate LTE length. Instead of publishing my letter, which spoke of Oxy’s lack of diversity (they obviously don’t like diverse, cutting edge letters-to-the editor), the Weekly reprinted an old letter from Sammy Suboh who often graces the Weekly with his letters. I don’t understand why they refused to print my letter, which by having a picture of the Beastie Boys and a short, to-the-point message, implied that Oxy should bring more Jewish white rappers, who stand for respect towards women, the environment and the freedom of Tibet, and instead reprinted-and I can’t say this enough-reprinted, a previous letter. If I write this same letter next week, will it be published again? If those are the standards of this paper, I sure hope it would. (I think it is silly and boring to print the same letter twice in a row, especially if it is taking the place of other people’s new letters, so I won’t push for that.) No one wants to read the same thing twice. That’s like subscribing to a sports magazine that is released monthly and regardless of the fact that new stuff happened in the past month, you find out that the effin Boston Red Sox won the series again! I don’t need that kind of grief. My letter was not supposed to be taken as a joke, but rather as a profound statement on the current climate of the Occidental community and what I think would be a positive improvement.
Check out beastiemania.com
Editor’s Note: There was a photograph included in this letter (as noted). However, as a policy, the Weekly does not print submitted pictures in the LTE section.
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