I remember sitting in Mr. Ferguson's 12th grade Public Affairs class, tapping my foot like a mad woman as he tried to outline the events in Ferguson. Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager was shot and killed by Darren Wilson, a white police officer. "This is not OK," I thought to myself as I overheard some of my classmates say things like "Why does this matter?" and "Wait, does this mean we have to write something?" I was absolutely enraged at many angles of this situation.
For starters, who are we? A bunch of middle class white kids in upstate New York to sit here and debate the significance of the shooting of a black, unarmed teen by a white police officer in the south, particularly an area where the racial divide is significantly larger and felt much deeper then here?
That's around the time I began to speak up, and now it seems I can't shut up.
So, after the recent
events in Orlando, Florida, it only made sense to speak out the best way I know possible: The Odyssey Online.
As Editor in Chief of Odyssey Online at Adelphi University, each week I have the opportunity to read over 24 different perspectives on different things. One writer covers dance and fine arts, one often interviews popular punk bands, one who usually covers politics in an unbiased way, and even one who loves to write listicles...
I love reading everyone's voice, and I especially love allowing the writers to write about what they want to—which is our ultimate goal here at Odyssey—because by doing so they create an environment where we become comfortable, writing to our niche each week.
However, with comfort comes close-mindedness, and since I truly believe Odyssey has come to Adelphi to open up the minds of our community, I decided to switch things up.
I decided to assign our team a "theme" last week to see how they, and myself, would handle writing outside of our comfort zones. We voted on Gun Control. For the first time in Odyssey's online history, every writer was expected to write about the same thing.
Nicole Innvar, our first writer ever, said she liked the idea "because it was nice to see the different opinions and diversity on the team."
Tyler Flannery, our previous social media director and one of our original 12 writers also noted that he liked "being able to not only share [his] opinion on a controversial topic, but reading all the different opinions and points of view from fellow writers was definitely eye opening."
Often times people ask me "What is Odyssey?" "Is it your school paper?" "Oh, it's just a stupid blog. I think I saw a link on my Facebook once." "Why did one of the writers make a typo on line six of their article?" "What kind of publication allows such radical opinions?" "Who even are you guys?"
Odyssey is more than that. We are more than "just a school paper." We are more than "just a stupid blog." We are college students from California to New York, nationwide, who have voices. We have that "fire" and the need to express ourselves. Instead of sitting around disagreeing with the condition of the world and complaining, we are doing something about it.
Odyssey at Adelphi University offers a voice for its students. A place where they can say exactly what is on their mind, candidly and authentically.
You can read all of our articles on gun control here:
A Remembrance Of Those Who Have Passed Away Tragically, Unjustly And Unnecessarily by Emily Elefonte
Finding A Middle Ground by Elizabeth Levner
Can You Repeal Our Bill Of Rights? by Jessica Winans
Why I No Longer Feel Safe At Concerts by Noor Meer
I Don't Know How To Feel About Gun Control by Stephanie Pohl
Why There Is No Cure To Gun Violence by Stephanos Yerolemou
Guns: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly by Pietro Pisciotta
An Open Letter To Victims Of Gun Violence by Tyler Flannery
Gun Law Reform by Nicole Del Vecchio
Disarming Me Will Not Protect Me by Victoria Polera
Gun Control Is A Joke by Tatesh Sookdeo
Why The Second Ammendment Is Outdated by Jami Glatter
Guns And Gun Conrol: What We All Need To Understand by Adel Basic
To Those Who Use Guns For Good, I Am Sorry by Rachel Vacca
Filibusters And The American Dream by Montana Schultz
Understanding Gun Control by Omar Hameed
