Journalism students debate issues of patriotism, religion

In the past two months, commentary in mass media has changed, as has everything else in our lives. Editorial writers and columnists – the good ones – have forsaken the petty for the profound. For that, we readers are thankful.

And we don’t necessarily have to turn to the op-ed pages of The New York Times or Washington Post to find astute observations and thoughtful analyses. They are being presented to us through small and large newspapers, weeklies or dailies, magazines, and radio and television segments. What we can’t find in hard copy, we can obtain from the Internet.

Or we can read opinion pieces in a campus newspaper or in a journalism class where students have struggled to identify and express their own solemn thoughts on the events of Sept. 11 and of the weeks and months that have followed.

“If one positive trend has arisen from the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, it is the resolute show of solidarity expressed by the American people,” one student wrote before moving on to a sober warning.

“However, in subscribing to this patriotic urge, the American citizen must exercise the most extreme caution not to fall prey to a more dangerous type of group psychosis – the urge to embrace God in our cries for retribution.” He writes about leaders calling for a “moral crusade” against forces in the Middle East; and about public schools resuming school prayer.

The young columnist argues that “religion has no place in politics” and can, in some cases, “erect walls that should not and cannot exist in a functional republic.” But he recognizes that another man may find fault with his argument.

“Don’t I have a right,” he says, “to ask my God for assistance, for support? The answer is, yes, of course. Freedom of religion, and the right to express that religion, belongs to every citizen of the United States. However, this citizen must be careful not to invoke the presence of God in the public sphere, in the arena of politics, or [in] his appeals for justice.”

Another student focuses on the Veterans Day holiday – a holiday she didn’t get.

“Veterans Day will not be celebrated here at the University of Maine like it will be elsewhere,” she writes. “Students will attend classes as usual, and many may not even know the significance of the day. This is a poor way to show our honor and respect for those who have lost their lives for our country.”

She notes that federal office buildings and post offices were to be closed yesterday, as were many public schools across the nation, but that it would “be business as usual at the University of Maine.”

“The men and women who lost their lives on Sept. 11 should also be celebrated and honored as heroes and veterans of the war, the war on terrorism. This year, more than ever, everyone should be privileged to honor our country’s veterans in the same fashion.”

As readers of columns, letters to the editor, editorials and any other opinion piece, we are free to agree or not with the message. And because we live in this land of liberty, the message is called free speech. How fortunate our students are to know that.