Whether through submitting guest-ops or leaving a comment on an article, take advantage of the space that student journalism holds for community engagement
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD
In today’s world, trying to become educated about current events can be difficult when it feels like people are trying to tell you what to think, rather than allowing you to build your own opinion in the midst of it all. Reading the news can also be overwhelming because it requires discerning what is real, what is fake and what is biased. But regardless of complications, the media allows people to stay informed on global topics and amplifies the voices of our communities.
Producing balanced journalism isn’t as clear-cut as we would sometimes like for it to be. Especially on a college campus, which is home to so many diverse backgrounds and perspectives, student journalism will likely never perfectly represent the complexity of the student body. While imperfect, The California Aggie does its best to accomplish this in a variety of ways — one of which is by publishing guest opinion articles that are submitted to our opinion editor at opinion@theaggie.org.
Our platform is for you. We edit these for clarity and grammar, but we don’t choose which ones to publish based on what we agree with. Of course, we have opinions and biases, but the role of a student newspaper is to fairly represent our campus. That’s why we want to give opportunities for the voices of all members of our community to be heard. Aside from guest-ops, you can also make your voice heard by leaving a comment on our website, where we recently re-opened the comments section.
Of course, we as an organization will never be able to satisfy every reader with our coverage, and as a media group, we probably wouldn’t be doing our job right if we did. And we won’t change or delete our content according to every piece of feedback that we receive. That said, we genuinely do want to hear from you, listen to you and learn from you. We hope that you will feel empowered to take advantage of the pathways we have for you to share your thoughts with the UC Davis community, and with the staff of The California Aggie.
Written by: The Editorial Board
As a resident of Davis for over 30 years, I am deeply concerned about the sentiments expressed by the Davis Farmers Market Management. I started an open stand in response to the Israeli bombardment in Gaza, with the aim of promoting peace and advocating for an immediate ceasefire in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I am grateful for the support I have received, with 98% of the people who visited my stand endorsing my peace efforts, including members of the Jewish community.
However, I encountered some individuals with extremist views who harassed me. It is important to clarify that I do not label these individuals as representative of all Jewish people, as I have many Jewish friends who are committed to peace. I prefer to refer to these individuals as extremist right-wing Israelis.
While I anticipated such harassment and was open to engaging in civilized discussions with those who held differing views, I was disheartened to find that the Farmers Market Manager, Randii MacNear, who is of Jewish heritage, also joined the ranks of those harassing me.
I want to emphasize that I will not compromise my right to freedom of speech and expression, despite their attempts to intimidate me by threatening to involve law enforcement or shut down my activities. It is unfortunate that some Israeli right-wing extremists are willing to go to great lengths to silence opposing voices, a fact underscored by their actions.
To illustrate the severity of their tactics, I want to share an incident where I had a disagreement with a UC Davis professor who took the extreme step of reporting me to the FBI, accusing me of being a sleeper cell terrorist. This highlights their willingness to disrupt lives and families in order to silence dissenting voices.
The situation in Palestine is a human crisis, and the people in the region, regardless of their background, deserve our support. It is our moral duty not to remain silent, as silence can make us complicit in the ongoing tragedy. There is no justification for the indiscriminate bombing of civilians, which has resulted in the deaths of thousands, including many children, and left countless more missing or buried under rubble. Over a short period, over 10,000 civilians have lost their lives due to the actions of Israeli forces.