Writing my first Editor-in-chief’s letter a day after the inauguration of President Trump puts me in quite the odd position. The syzygy of my appointment and Trump’s election is fortuitous, for now the public has become once more acquainted with sophistry, the idle and empty lyric of the deranged. This is something that I intend to use fully to my advantage. Like all men of questionable worth but grandiose character, I employ words to dazzle and stun with spectacle. It is my hope, and indeed my dream, that my highfalutin prose will usher in a new era in The Blue and White’s pretentiousness. I have consulted the portents with Mr. Veritas on this matter and the livers are gloriously red (p. 12).
Our archaic band of sassy writers, poets, journalists who have defected from Spec, creative writers, artists, and groupies, it seems, will this year coalesce into one kingdom, ying one blue and white banner. My time presiding over the magazine, I hope, will be ripe with fresh news, over owing with scandal, and at all times refreshingly abundant. ‘Tis the season.
This issue centers around discussion: what it means to graft against the current, how to have your voice heard, what free speech really means. This issue, in short, is for you, President Bolliger (big fan, by the way). We tackle the implications of having a controversial gure on campus and the ethics of refusing them a platform (p. 21), while on page 16, we celebrate the American tradition of protest and analyse what the recent political protests mean for Columbia students (p. 16). We also cover the voices trampled underfoot by the majority and seek to answer why, as Mill might put it (I’m a Core man, you see), eccentricity is vital for our community (p. 13).
I end my first and hopefully not final editor’s note with a thank you to my predecessors for their wonderful contributions, leadership, and inspiration.
— David Alexander Swanson