I have to be honest. I’ve spent a semester failing to lift a finger to hit the keyboard to write either a letter to the editor or an opinion piece. Perhaps I subconsciously told myself that I was too busy, too tired or just too burned out to think of something to write about. I think others have had the same feeling. What a crock! If there is one thing we have beyond everything else in our lives, it is an opinion. We rant and rave all day long about the administration, the faculty, the police, the government and everything in between. Our mouths are flapping when we get up and they are mumbling as we pass out in bed. And if we aren’t talking, we are surely thinking of all kinds of other things to fasten our comments upon.

So if this is the case, why isn’t the opinion editor at The State News being inundated with opinion pieces and letters to the editor? Why isn’t he able to sift through the good, the bad and the ugly to print the wild, spectacular and mind-blowing? Well, the answer is us. And it isn’t pretty! We produce excuses like, “I have no ideas!” A stupid response that requires no comment. “I have no time!” Get a tape recorder and tape that letter to the editor while quietly sitting in the bathroom. “I am not good at saying what I think!”

In that case, it would be difficult for someone to prove his or her worth after graduation. Better start mouthing the anthem of all those who talk themselves into the “I Can’t Communicate Syndrome!” The anthem has only one word said over and over, “Unemployed, unemployed…”
Life is about opinions. It doesn’t start with happy thoughts and feeding the hungry or being nice to the incarcerated. Life is definitely not about food or drink or the neighbors next door. It is about your OPINIONS about food or drink or the neighbors next door. We exist to make judgments about everything that we see or hear in our daily lives.

This came to me a few days ago. I was carrying on my habitual complaining about this or that or whatever hit me at the time, and I zeroed in on Capital Gains Distributions in mutual funds. It had riled me up and upset my stomach enough to only eat one portion at the buffet for dinner. I must have been really angry to give up food. People interested in this heinous tax can check the Internet. If someone is planning to get into a mutual fund, be ready to be taken to the cleaners by the government.
What has that got to do with this opinion piece, anyway? My getting upset with this tax has about as much influence as me trying to stop a Capital Area Transportation Authority bus by jumping out in front of it when it is running a stoplight on Shaw Lane. What I needed was to write to someone and put my voice in print. I needed to get my frustration out in the open and let the catharsis begin.
I completed my two-page concern and mailed it to President Barack Obama, not because I didn’t vote for him but because he is the President of the United States and the buck stops with him. We need to let our voices be heard. Get those opinions fleshed out on the computer, on the tape recorder, or on the backs of napkins at the local watering hole.

Give the opinion editor of The State News the opportunity to revel in a growing pile of fantastic, wild and off-the-wall letters and opinions. Not for him alone, but for all those who read the paper. There is a need to hear the voice of the students, the staff and the faculty alike. Sound off!

Craig Gunn is a State News guest columnist. Reach him at gunn@egr.msu.edu.