Truth is both your best friend and your worst enemy

The truth can always be debated, as anything. But this so-called truth is different than other intangible concepts. We always know what's true after we've witnessed it. Our mind cannot justify anything else as truth the the major facts we've compiled to make up this truth.

And the truth is waning. Everywhere. Mostly because people have forgotten what truth is or are just too lazy to find it. The reason I became a journalist is because I value the truth above all other things.

A crime against truth has been committed in the recent days and it has done more than bother me, it's corrupted my brain. It's easy to point out national problems and other events that we are farther removed from to debate if the are "true" or not. But when you experience something firsthand, when the knowledge is literally with you where ever you go, it makes a difference. And it is different.

The university of UW-Whitewater disgusts me. I've always been prideful of this university, in fact, I written entire columns in the newspaper defending it's "suitcase college" stigma and that there's nothing to do in Whitewater. But what I've painfully began to realize is no one questions you when you're writing something that's indirectly promoting the school, but the second a critical eye is placing the magnifying glass upon the deeper problems at this institution--you might as well be a fucking communist in the 1950s.

What I am referring to is the way the university has handled the Coach Leipold controversy. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, you can read all about it on the royal purple Web site . In short, the coach acted like a jack-ass. Even the chancellor and athletic director, in much nicer words, have admitted this. So has Leipold, the head football coach here.

What's utterly disgusting is no one sees this incident as a chance to change. All they are doing is trying to "cover up" this slip of the mouth and as long as the once perfect image is restored ... so is everything else. But this just isn't true. Image may be percieved as everything, but when people respect themselves and the people around them, image has no weight agaisnt the truth. No matter how tough it is to swallow.

The truth has been skewed and courrpted. So much that the Leipold has flat-out lied about his comments, even in his so-called "apologies." In an e-mail I was never supposed to see that was sent to the soccer team it told the players that Leipold had been "misquoted" and was "taken out of context." That the athletic department was "in this together."

NONE OF THAT IS CLOSE TO BEING TRUE. Had the entire quote where Leipold blatently makes fun of the soccer team had gone in, it would have made him look EVEN WORSE. If the all the athletes are "in this together" I feel fucking sorry for them, and sorry to have been one of these athletes for 3 years. The only way UW-Whitewater teams are in this together is if they believe what coach Leipold had done was OKAY.

But I guess it's hard for someone to picture a 40-year-0ld coach repeatedly calling a 110-pound, 19-year-old sports editor and swearing at him and telling him he can't cover the very teams and coaches he so much looks up to and admires. I guess it's hard to imagine Athletic Director Paul Pelinski telling the RP advisor one of writers have "an attitude problem" and finding any gossip possible to make him look bad including an untrue rumor that he had been sleeping with another RP staff memeber. I guess it's hard for former football players who wrote in letters to the editor complaining that prominant football players shouldn't be written about when the urinate in public or chop down public trees to understand standard journalist practices that make these people "public figures." I guess it's hard to find the truth when you're being told not to talk about or even comment on the Web site about something that college-level students should be able to make up their minds on their own if it's right or not.

And that's the truth. And that's what no one wants to talk about, and what the RP themselves can't even print.

That's what's been eating me alive for the past few days. It may not mean much to you, or it might mean everything to you. Either way, I hope I am respected enough to have this all be seen as the truth. If not, why am I even here?

That's not what i meant, that's what it MEANS

Meaning is so extremely important, yet is something often overlooked amidst everyday life. In of the readings, something truly stuck with me was that there really is no set meaning any longer. Meaning is the what becomes attached to a word through the use and trends of colloquial language. For example, the word "blog," the very thing that refers what I am writing this second derived its meaning from the words "web log." A blog 50 years ago was meaningless, in fact, it wasn't even a word. But it's a highly accepted term in today's society through the attachment of meaning that our generation has put on it.

Swear words are a topic that fascinate me what it comes to meaning. Words like "fuck" and "damn" have absolutely no meaning. However, they've been labeld as "swears" or "bad" words, which in some way has made them even more popular in everyday language. It's so interesting to me when people are so offended by a single word. The reason swear words are so "bad" is because of the meaning put behind them when they are said. People say "Fuck" in a negative or sexual manner, which has been deemed by society as bad and inappropriate. When in reality, someone could exclaim "kitten" and have the same horrible meaning, but because we think of kittens as cute and innocent, no one would have any negative reprecussions from saying it.

Meaning also comes into play with a much disputed topic of saying "I love you." Meaning is so essential to these words, but they are what everyone wants to hear. So instead of taking the meaning behind these words, we take them for face value. If he said I love you, he MUST mean it? Even if his actions speak otherwise. A lot of times, actions toward someone really do speak louder than the words "i love you," but people often refuse to believe it unless it is spoken. We've become a society of istant gratification and I believe the "I love you" Phenominon, as I like to call it, is one of these situations. People no longer need meaning to make things important, they just need the representation of the meaning. Which brings this conversation (and our classroom disccusions) full circle. In that words represent feelings and actions. They are not the equivlant of these feelings and actions. I dont' think people will every really be capable of FULLY relaying their cognizance through words, although some have come pretty damn close.

(Oh my God, she just swore....... AND took the lord's name in vain?!?)