From Tim Floyd and the Cyclone basketball team to Milton McGriff and The September 29th Movement, from Daily columnists to the hockey pep band, from engineers to LAS majors, everyone’s complaining about something in the Quick Es of the Daily.

“So-and-so is so annoying.”

“So-and-so should just shut up.”

“So-and-so is hated by everyone on campus.”

And my personal favorite, “So-and-so is so intolerant.”

Everyone, everywhere, hates something. Whether it be food service, the new videoboard, or a dry Veishea, everyone dislikes something enough to write in to the Daily to let everyone else know how they feel.

And they’re funny, aren’t they? Isn’t it great to unleash our hostility on the world? We get our very own chance to take free potshots at anyone we want, and we don’t even have to be held accountable.

What fun.

People’s opinions are funny to read. One-liners about cloning Carrie Chapman Catt, playing “Stroke it” on the campanile and bowing down to graduate students are definitely amusing.

And, the occasional shot against someone we REALLY don’t like makes us laugh.

Quick Es are harmless, aren’t they? Aren’t they simply a funny distraction from paying attention in class?

No one really means to hurt anyone. And if someone does take offense to any jokes, they must just not have a sense of humor, which they will also be notified of in the Quick Es.

After all, you don’t actually want to change anything. You don’t really want to fix any problems on campus. You just want to let people know how you feel.

You want everyone on campus to know that you think the basketball team sucks this year.

You want all your friends to see your year and major under the “Engineers can’t even dress themselves” comment.

You want people to be sure that you think the videoboard is dumb, even though you didn’t pay for it and you can see the score in eight other places around Hilton.

What you don’t want is for things to actually change.

Don’t get me wrong. Some of the Quick Es are absolutely hilarious. Some have been extremely clever while making a valid point.

But most of them are cheap little attacks that aren’t intelligent or interesting and are written just to let people know you have an opinion.

Sorry guys, but the 500 “LAS majors can’t count” jokes just aren’t funny.

But if you can’t be funny, you might as well be mean. What’s better than making someone else feel stupid or second-rate? As long as you can put a Daily concert reviewer or a member of The September 29th Movement in their place, then you must be doing your duty to society.

Only, your one-liners don’t accomplish anything.

Let me repeat that: Your Quick Es will not solve any problems.

If you do or do not like the hockey pep band, letting Daily readers know won’t change the situation or anyone else’s mind.

If you don’t like The September 29th Movement, not only will writing a Quick E not shoo them off campus, it will probably give them the motivation to work even harder to accomplish their goals.

If you feel strongly that something needs to be changed, there are millions of constructive ways to deal with the problem. Writing a Quick E is not one of them.

Intolerance of other people is obviously prevalent in our society. I’m not even talking about moral intolerance or political intolerance. Just intolerance of anyone who is in any way different than you.

But until we as a society learn to appreciate our differences, let’s not spend our time attacking them.

I’m not saying no one should ever say anything that might hurt someone’s feelings. But if you want to talk about something that needs fixing, try something different: MAKE A POINT!

There are no quick fixes for our problems. Don’t try to solve them with a Quick E.

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Sara Ziegler is a sophomore in journalism and mass communication from Sioux Falls, S.D. She is the opinion editor of the Daily.