By Todd Bluth
Being a journalist, I believe that words have a certain amount of power within society, even more so than the general public may be inclined to think. The old adage that the pen is mightier than the sword - while perhaps idealistic and a little exaggerated - still rings true, especially in a democratic society that grows more apathetic by the day.
But I also believe that the efficacy of public forums and free expression has its limits, and there are circumstances and situations in which words are a poor substitute for action when advocating change.
Enter Brigham Young University. As a private institution - as opposed to a public or state-funded university - the administration can enact and enforce a myriad of laws with relative impunity. Communication and free expression can be legally censored for any reason with hardly any fear of a First Amendment backlash, although admittedly such censorship has rarely occurred here, to my knowledge. Furthermore, every student at BYU has signed an agreement to abide by university laws, no matter how inane they may seem to the student, making even casual disobedience legal grounds for expulsion based on the stipulations cited by the administration. The student body is wholly subject to the administrators, in other words, with no way of influencing their decisions through conventional means such as letter writing or public forum debate.
What good, then, do words do when the powers that be have no viable reason or motivation to listen to them? BYU is not a democracy, and that means that public discussion will not have nearly as much influence as it does in areas like American politics and public policy. As it is, written or spoken opinions in Cougardom amount to little more than students merely venting frustrations and blowing off steam without hope of change, especially because history shows that any issues that cause a student outcry here generally go away in a very short while without major incident. So somebody says that BYUSA ought to be ashamed of itself. Who cares? Not anybody who is in a position to effect change, and not BYUSA, that''s for sure. They''ll keep putting on activities, people will still flock to them in droves, and it will be business as usual once again.
If the people who write these angry and impassioned letters really want to do their part to bring about some kind of change in such an environment, it requires action. I was thrilled to see so many students taking action with the March 31 protest. It''s a start. But even with that, more needs to be done. All those people disgusted with BYUSA firing Todd Hendricks need to boycott BYUSA events, for example, and get others to do the same. People angry about the Honor Code need to organize, unite and protest. Until the administration shows a substantial interest in what the student body has to say, words alone simply will not cut it.
Personally, I don''t feel as strongly as others about most of the issues that come across the opinion page of The Daily Universe, including the ones I''ve just mentioned. What is worrisome, however, is the tendency of the vocal majority to whine and bellyache without the willingness to take peaceable action. It definitely makes one wonder what sort of civic participants are being bred at BYU when their inner conviction amounts to little more than a letter that they know in advance won''t do any good anyway.
But on the bright side, at least the apathy here is neatly groomed and clean-shaven.