(WARNING: What follows is a sickening pile of self-serving twaddle. Read it at your own risk.)

This is it, kids.

This will be, in all probability, the last column I will write for the Iowa State Daily. Next semester, I’m off to my internship and, upon completing that final hurdle, I will graduate.

I’ve written about 45 regular opinion columns since August of ’95, and I have benefited much from the experience.

Just take a look at the improvement in my grammar and focus from the first, early, embarrassing columns to today’s “sickening pile of self-serving twaddle.” But at least it’s reasonably well-written twaddle.

It’s been said that opinion writing isn’t “real” journalism. The argument is, it’s not like the writer is doing any actual reporting; he or she is just spouting off on some topic.

That is ridiculous. To write a good column, the writer must do at least a bit of research, and possibly interviews if necessary. The majority of my columns required at least some background, from news reports on French nuclear testing in the South Pacific to the cost of the V-22 program to reading a copy of the Communications Decency Amendment.

Or is it the Communications Decency Act? I’ll be getting mail for that confusion for sure.

Speaking of mail, it’s interesting to go back and see which columns resulted in a pile of letters to the editor and which ones elicited absolutely no response whatsoever.

There is certainly no pattern to it. I can write a column trashing the presidential candidates of the past year, or on a subject as emotional as rape, and maybe one letter shows up in the box.

But last week, I took a swing at NASA, which I still contend is a bureaucratic mess (even if it is improving). And what happens? We run two strong letters protesting my opinion and I even get e-mail on my personal account.

But this is a good thing. People read the column, had some strong opinions on the topic, and they wrote in. What amazes me is that this sort of thing doesn’t happen as often as it should.

I admit, I’m not the most ideological guy around. I am a centrist, with views that run from liberal to conservative depending on the topic. I try to take a realistic view of issues and events and not swing too far to the left or right.

But ideology makes for conflict, and conflict leads to readers writing in.

But if a columnist writes about a topic which interests you — even if you don’t disagree with him or her — voice your opinion.

Do not just sit back and passively read what is on the page and accept it, or quietly disagree. If you disagree, write in and forcefully make your statement. And even if you agree, your take on a subject is likely to be different from the columnist’s view.

And if you really and truly love what’s been written, send us some fan mail. It’s not like we don’t enjoy it.

While we’re on the subject of fandom, the Daily has certainly been lacking in fans recently. And admittedly, we have made some mistakes of late.

Of course, the “is it Troy or Darren?” boo-boo from last week certainly didn’t earn us any new friends.

But was this an example of the Daily’s inability to accurately inform the university population, as some have claimed?

Hell, no. It was a simple, stupid mistake which we have apologized for and were thoroughly embarrassed by. And it’s the sort of mistake made by all news organizations.

But is does not, in any way, reflect upon our ability to operate as a news organization. For every one story or photo we run that is in some way incorrect, our people create 99 others that are as good as it gets in this business. But we do make occasional mistakes, mistakes that we apologize for and for which we take a beating because of our obviously public profile.

And when a controversy boils up which throws the community into a spin — such as the Mitchell situation — the media become an obvious and easy target for everyone’s frustration.

We get the flak when everyone gets hurt. But that’s fine. We’re big enough to take it. And it’s a part of this business.

And it’s a business I like being a part of, even if we aren’t always understood by the community we serve.

So that’s it, y’all. Hopefully, I’ve done my job and made you think a bit about topics and views you may not have considered.

Stay realistic.

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Kevin S. Kirby is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Louisville. He has a B.A. in political science from the University of Wyoming.