'IDS' reader challenge

Welcome to the summer edition of your IDS opinion page. I will be your editor, JP Benitez, and this will be the space to find your staff editorials. \nOften this slice of the opinion page gets tossed aside, having no flashy picture and frequently tempered by an association with harder news -- typically overshadowed by the flamboyance of the columnists to its right. This is the space reserved for the IDS staff to present its opinion on current events; however, it can also very well be your space to find issues that concern, anger or delight you, the reader.\nAs you may well know, we have a system where letters to the editor can be published: The Jordan River Forum. Many use this opportunity to express their disgust and outrage with the material printed on this and other pages of the IDS. It is with this in mind that I present to you a challenge.\nWhile we have numerous resources at our disposal with which we expose news on campus, there is never an end to issues that need covering. In addition to using your power of reader-response to express views contrary to those published, I urge you to help us lead this side of the page. Introduce this IDS staff to your problems, your dilemmas and your controversies. \nContinue to stretch your powers of the press and send that you aren't seeing raised or ideas you aren't seeing challenged to letters@indiana.edu so we, the staff, may investigate and comment. \nThe beauty of the opinion page is that we are not limited by the notion of "objective" journalism. If there is an institution or personality that needs criticism or applause, a hard-nosed line drawn in the sand, then we can set out to act appropriately. Sometimes, objectivity simply will not serve -- some issues demand that people choose sides. Landlord problems, praise for unsung heroes, Residential Program Services conspiracies or abusive treatment by those in power -- these are the stories that only you, the participants in Bloomington life, can bring to us. \nHere, the IDS staff will attempt to convey thoughtful insight into these issues, through the collaborative efforts of those on our staff who sit in on the meetings where we discuss, debate and attempt to collate our ideas into one unified expression. Airing one's disgust with existing material can push the paper only so far, but offering new paths can help us bring news to you and create dialogues that before might never have been given a thought. \nThanks for your readership, and here's to a great summer.\n-- JP Benitez, Opinion editor