As a columnist, my freedom of speech is very important to me. Like Cartman, I do what I want. Within reason, anyway. Generally, I draw the line at what I know my editor will not let me get away with.

Colleges are the venue for the expansion of thought and a breeding ground for ideas – a kind of petri dish for liberalism. We are obstinate young adults who have heard just about every “bad” word in the book and who live on a campus designed to give us the life experience we need in order to survive in the real world.

So the fact that Pacific Lutheran U. censored their newspaper, The Mooring Mast, is – let’s face it – horse excrement. The offending article used the dreaded “F-word” and a word synonymous with stuff, feces and knowledge in the headline. The PLU administration blew its top and pulled the online version until the headline was changed.

I know if any of my columns were pulled like this story was it would feel like a slap to the face, and I can honestly say that I am glad I did not go to PLU. Journalism and what it stands for is a passion of mine, and I am just the kind of stubborn person who will fight to the death to keep my integrity as a writer and rights as an American citizen intact. There are lines we do not cross. Libel, bias and offensive language are things that good journalists and columnists will not touch with a 10-foot pole.

The language used in the headline was not offensive language, not to the point where a journalist’s First Amendment rights deserved to be impeded. What the journalist wrote was the name of a dodgeball team; he was not just putting profanity in the paper for no good reason. Frankly, the fact that PLU censored the paper, but not the team, seems a bit hypocritical. Sure, the paper represents the university and its good name, but so does the dodgeball team and all the other organizations on campus that use profanity in various event names.

The way I see it is that those students who work on school newspapers – whether they want to seriously pursue journalism as a future career or not – are professionals who just happen to also be students. If we cannot be taken seriously by our universities and trusted in what we publish, we cannot expect to be taken seriously when we are out looking for actual jobs. There is a good chance that because of this one incident every student involved is going to be looked at twice before being considered for a serious journalistic gig.

The vast majority of us on campus are legal adults, and therefore have all of our constitutional rights intact. The violation of any of these rights, especially by a university partially funded by the government, is not OK no matter what kind of beliefs the college has.

Many people are citing the “L” in PLU as a reason why the censorship was justified, but I recall learning in my Gen Ed class that Martin Luther was a rebel himself. We channel Edward R. Murrow here at WSU – maybe PLU should start channeling some of the “I am not taking this lying down” attitude of Luther and start nailing protest flyers to doors.