The Opinion of the Hullabaloo: Passion with reason

We at the Hullabaloo are unbendingly in favor of free speech — we’re a newspaper, after all. We support Tulane University Campus Programming’s right to host Olmert despite his recent indictment and alleged violations of human rights and war crimes, and we support students’ rights to protest his speech.

Ideally, though, the protestors screaming in the streets and those who shouted back would have the same respect for each other as we have for them. Tulane is usually incredibly apathetic, so we commend both sides for getting excited about something other than drink specials. Though any actual substance was lost in the sea of passion and spirit, which is more than a little disheartening.

We would have loved to see the protesters asking Olmert the tough questions they shouted outside. We would have loved it if audience members engaged with the protesters, sharing their own opinions, instead of complaining about the disruption. But, alas, we did not.

Of course, this is not a problem limited to Tulane. College campuses, ironically, are well known for their lack of reasoned debate outside classrooms. It indeed seems that in order for an issue to get students involved, it must also provide rage-induced aneurisms.

Don’t get us wrong, we love it when we see passion about important issues. We just hope people remember that an excess of passion caused that mess (and many others) to begin with. So chill out, you noble champions of played-out, irresolvable political issues.