By Ryan Broderick, News Editor

Hate mail is the sign for a cartoonist that what you’re saying is resonating somewhere with people, and though it’s negative, as any political cartoonists will probably tell you, it’s oddly gratifying. When Ms. Hawkins sent her complaint to our Op/Ed section’s email I called my mom because, after 19 years of being the mother of a rather loud-mouthed and opinionated young man, she knows I think hate mail is a good thing.

My problem with Ms. Hawkins’ email is not with her opinion. I think dissent is a terrific thing. I hope to make my living on offering (rather boorishly) a different opinion. I disagree with how she took my cartoon. And it’s important to note that this perception is just as much my fault as it is hers.

Ms. Hawkins read my cartoon as yet another submission glorifying and highlighting the carefree wonders of drunk driving. She probably thought, “This is Long Island, I bet this guy drives drunk all the time.” I mean if Long Island ever became a state it’s state flag would be a picture of the Jaws of Life. But that’s the thing, I wasn’t endorsing drunk driving, I was satirizing it.

The thing is, Long Island has a horrible problem with drunk driving and Hofstra students typically have a very low level of common sense. So as I drew the cartoon, I figured sarcasm would be the best way to highlight the so-sad-you-have-to-laugh situation of Hofstra actually giving cars to their students. Even worse, the common explanation is that they’re for freshmen who couldn’t bring their cars. Do you know how absolutely hammered I was freshman year?

And of course, it’s never a good idea to explain a joke, but if someone reading my work is going to shake their fist and curse my name it better be for the right reasons and not for the exact wrong reasons. 

At the end of her complaint, Ms. Hawkins warns our Op-Ed section to think more about the implications of our content. Well the funny thing (or in Ms. Hawkins’ case the apparently not very funny thing) about opinions are they’re supposed to stir you. If you read an Op-Ed section and agreed with everything you read, then it’s probably a bad opinion section.

Offensive content and poor taste are a matter of opinion (Op-Ed get it?), and if you dislike what I have to say, offer another opinion. And that right there is the entire problem with the University’s image of The Chronicle. They’re quick to condemn but always refuse to offer something else. Instead of using The Chronicle like the public forum it’s supposed to be, it’s written off as pointless. If The Chronicle is so pointless why is it such a subject of contention?

But my point drifted further than it should’ve. Essentially I’d only like to ask Ms. Hawkins and anyone else offended by my work to offer an alternative. I recently heard of an almost organized group that wants me to stop drawing and if that’s not just some rumor, then come forward. Regardless of who wins the argument at least it’d be an interesting read right? And that’s the point of all of this, to offer something provocative and hopefully entertaining to be wrapped around campus news.

So if you have a problem in the future, write a response, offer something else for the people who may feel the same way. Or just put down the paper and accept maybe you shouldn’t deal with too many points of view if they bother you so much. Or, maybe the easiest thing you could do, is learn to take a joke.