I was just reading today’s Daily, and a thought struck me: As a student body, we really make up a very interesting group.

I know it’s nothing deep or any unrealized truth I’ve just discovered, but it led me to think about the students here at ISU.

I’ve been reading the Daily for what seems like far too long, and I always read the opinion pages.

Sure, there are times when I disagree with other people’s opinions, but that’s the beauty of it!

As a whole, our student body is made up of so many different types of people from all kinds of places, ideologies, mentalities and ethnicities that if we could ever truly come together, it would be something of which the entire world would need to stop and take notice.

Those of us who have voiced our opinions on the pages of the Daily only make up a small minority of the student body; however, I feel that most groups have been represented in some way through the years.

For example, I’ve seen letters for and against Christian theologies, sexual preferences, foreign and domestic political issues, abortion and racial prejudice.

All are huge hot topics across the United States and around the globe. We’ve also discussed issues that apply only to ISU.

We’ve done all of this with (for the most part) a medium that reaches anyone with access to the Web since (in case you didn’t know) the Daily is published online as well as in hardcopy print.

I think I’m actually proud of the ISU community (something that, for a while, I never thought I’d hear myself say).

The Daily gets a lot of crap for a lot of stuff it puts in the readers’ hands, but if you take a step back and look at the greater picture, isn’t it good that they publish some things you don’t like?

I’m quite sure Carmen Cerra gets a load of e-mail about “Poison Ink,” but he doesn’t stop drawing.

What would happen if he did? What would happen if the Daily stopped publishing articles that were not the “mainstream?”

It would disappear, and so would a lot of culture at ISU.

As people from so many totally different worlds, we need something simple and available to meet in as common ground.

Thank you to everyone who reads the Daily and everyone who writes to and for the Daily.

I think it makes us all a little better off.

I also want to ask that when you read something that you disagree with or is totally the opposite of the way you’ve come to know the world to be, before you throw a little fit and say something about how much the Daily sucks, think about what you just read, and take it in stride.

No one can force anything on you, they can only tell you what they think.

You have to decide the rest.

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John Woods

Junior

Computer engineering