Dear Editors:
Humans make mistakes. The Titanic, the Challenger explosion and the BP oil crisis are all examples of human mistakes. But the lightbulb, penicillin and the pacemaker were also results of human mistakes.
My point is this: It is inevitable that we will make mistakes. Most of us make mistakes every day. But we cannot continue to punish people for honest mistakes; instead, the important thing is to learn from what we’ve messed up.
With regards to Travis and Abby’s recent resignations from The Maneater, I am disappointed. Two leaders of our community made a huge mistake and we all recognize that. But pulling them out of the mix and throwing them under the bus does not help anyone in the long run. We are students here at the university for a reason: We have come to learn. Part of the learning process is about making mistakes. I am willing to bet they both have learned several important lessons from this incident.
But, they are gone. So what now? Someone else will be thrown into their positions and immediately take over their duties without as much preparation. This will hurt the newspaper more than help.
When put into a leadership position, one develops a plan of action and a vision for direction. I’m confident Travis and Abby both had a specific vision and plans to make that vision a reality. I’m doubtful that vision included hurting community members. But since they are suddenly disconnected from the paper, their plans will simply fall through and any progress thus far will be lost. The organization will simply have to start over — from square one — with the new leaders’ plans.
Nobody is perfect, and sometimes our mistakes hurt others. But unless it is intentional, I see no reason to abandon our faith in our student leaders. The goal of this campus is to educate and develop individuals into future leaders of the world, yet the lesson we’re teaching Travis and Abby appears to be “mess up and your work will disavow you and your community will throw you under the bus and then abandon you.”
Yes, I too was upset by the April Fools’ edition, and signed a letter to the editor. It was distasteful and offensive; it was simply poor journalism at best. Yet there comes a time when we, as a people, must recognize the difference and importance intentions make. Too often we make issue of something that should simply be recognized as a mistake, and then let go, knowing we can be mature and learn from the mistake. This is one of those situations. Had this been a professional newspaper, I would argue for more serious consequences, but again, I cannot stress enough that this is a learning environment and that The Maneater is a student newspaper.
Our institution preaches diversity. Yet, we often fail to recognize our diverse minds: When Abby and Travis own up to their actions (or lack of actions) and tell us they were unaware of a certain term’s meaning, give them the benefit of doubt without questioning them. We all come from different backgrounds, so it is unfair to judge someone’s knowledge just because you are very familiar or aware of a definition. I could not be more disappointed in the results of the incident; calling for resignations was inappropriate.
Thank you, Travis and Abby, for your respectful and timely responses and explanations. I also want to thank everyone in this community who has recognized they made a great mistake, expressed their concerns, and moved on. We are all human; mistakes happen. We must continue to support an environment that allows our student leaders to learn from their mistakes without abandoning them.
Sincerely,
Andrew Worrall
andrewworrall@mail.missouri.edu