Dear Editor,

I was relatively surprised and disappointed to see The Pitt News’ reaction to… Dear Editor,

I was relatively surprised and disappointed to see The Pitt News’ reaction to the J. David McSwane incident. McSwane’s editorial, if it can even be called that, was by no means an expression of free speech, or a ploy to gain attention from an apathetic populace. It was an unnecessarily vulgar and uneducated display of ignorance.

McSwane might be patting himself on the back for making people react to his spin on an issue. However, the reaction is not because of a genuine interest in his opinion, it is solely because of shock. There is no reason for any educated individual to decide that a reasoned argument should be passed over in favor of an expression that would most commonly be used by a middle school kid.

I fail to see how printing “F*** BUSH” in an editorial will suddenly make people care about the Bush administration. Perhaps I’ve missed one of the fundamentals of persuasive argument, but to me, shock value is not the same as a genuine interest. If I may turn for a moment to the root of the issue, the Florida State affair, I would remind Mr. McSwane that the student wasn’t Tased because the police wanted to stop his free speech. He was Tased because he was resisting police officers. I urge anyone to think that this is about the First Amendment to watch the video of the incident. Forget for one moment that the student was asking an offensive question. He was told that he would be Tased if he continued to resist. Instead of quietly obeying the law he decided to test law enforcement officials. His First Amendment rights weren’t infringed, so there was no need for McSwane to decide it was time to take the stand he did.

I could not disagree more with the decision to support McSwane’s actions. His editorial was unprofessional, uneducated and unsolicited. If he wanted to generate interest, he should have aimed for interest in his point instead of interest in his shock-producing wording. Glorifying him is tantamount to walking around in the street screaming “F*** REASONED ARGUMENT” to the passerby. If you want to make a point, do it in a respectful manner. If no one pays attention, then that is an unfortunate by-product of a world in disarray. If McSwane was truly a journalist and truly educated, he wouldn’t have made matters worse by creating turmoil this nation doesn’t need.

Ryan Kiray CAS