Background: I go to Brigham Young University, a university partially subsidized by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. BYU is unalterably connected with the Church.
The last couple of weeks there has been some excitement in the geology department. An advertisement was printed in the university newspaper for an expo that included some speakers who some of the students and professors had already run across and found to be.... less than scientific and they have a religious bent. Some of the students got pretty excited about it and one wrote up a letter to send to the paper to say we as a department questioned the authenticity of this individual's science. The author asked a few of us to proofread his letter. I did so and I asked him to add something about how the advertisement, simply by its presence in the school newspaper) implies the university (and hence the LDS church) actually condones this expo. He added it and then several professors and students signed the letter and it was sent in. The school newspaper removed the advertisement and printed the letter in full. A few days later another newspaper wrote an article quoting from our letter and using some other sources.
I felt proud to be a part of it. A part of something bigger than just me. And proud to stand up for something that I believed in. I'm not sure I would have felt as strongly about it if I had been at another university. BYU in many ways represents the LDS Church (that is not always a good thing, or how it should be, but that is how it is).
The downside, as my Dad pointed out, is if we hadn't posted the letter would anyone have even noticed the advertisement. Even though we made the expo receive bad press, it still gave it press which it probably would not have received otherwise.
My initial response to most things like this is "yeah that shouldn't be happening" but I don't do anything about it. Arguing in public venues usually doesn't seem effective. And yet, sometimes I think it does need to be done. A couple of years ago I posted about how sometimes stirring hornets is worth it. The question is how do you know when to do it? and how do you make sure it will be more helpful than harmful?
I was flattered when two of my peers, who had been less involved in the conversation and the letter writing, both said they were willing to sign it when they learned that I had proofread it first. They trusted me to be civil, and reasonable. I hope I was. They already knew the author would be straightforward and clear. He was.
I don't know if those are the only things important when you decide to stir up hornets but I think it is at least a start.
This is interesting. We should talk about it sometime.
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