One of the most beautiful things about writing in the opinion section is feeling like you’re engaged in a conversation with your readership. You get to talk to people about things that matter to you and they get to talk back – in the comments section, in letters to the editor, in submissions.
One of the scariest things about writing in the opinion section, and maybe writing at all, is the possibility that all of your words are echoing off a cave wall and hitting your ears again – that you are not, in actual fact, having a conversation at all, but getting a sick satisfaction out of hearing yourself talk.
When you more or less make your living writing down what you think about stuff and feeling like people are listening, you risk getting a little more involved with yourself and a little less involved with the community you’re supposed to be serving.
The launch of the opinion blog is a part of our attempt to bridge whatever gap there may be between us at the paper and you, the people reading it.
We will continue to write what we think about stuff, but now, the kind of stuff we’re writing about is greater in scope and will hopefully generate the kinds of conversations our print paper is limited in starting.
Lots of things, at UCLA and beyond it, make us mad and sad and critical and happy around here. We’re excited to start writing to you about them and to hear back.
We hope you find the reading as useful and engaging as we always find the writing.