I'm not sure how much to read into this article. I'm not sure if the writer simply doesn't have the necessary language capabilities to express her feelings or if there is something more sinister at play here. California, the home of my hero, the great John Steinbeck, a place of so many possiblities in art, literature and expression and yet articles such as this are still being published? After all that the Californian people have had to endure, from the great depression, peace and love and all the dreams that came with it through to the present and what do we find...lazy, unsubstantiated, unconsciously racist journalism. It's not that the fact that the journalist is lazy or racist it's just that she doesn't realise that the written word can be interpreted in so many ways and that it doesn't take much for a reader to..."read between the lines". I found it odd how someone needed to tell us that they were studying Martin Luther’s 95 Theses and then proceed to produce an article with the following line "Another friend claimed he knew someone who was raped by an Irish person last summer". Now am I reading this right? Whether or not this was true we are never told? Why allow conjecture and speculation enter into an article without proving or disproving it. The journalist in many ways seems to want to disprove this and other rumours yet in no way is the rumour given any validation or answer?? Now I'm not saying Irish kids who go away for the Summer are perfect, we aren't but I do know that we come from a small country. If someone was accused or rape in Santa Barbara while on a J1 visa our country would be up in arms because our media is very quick to jump on issues such as this. Also can I say that I spent a Summer as an Irish student in BDC rented frat house in Isla Vista. I can only speak from my own experiences but it wasn't myself or any of the Irish people in the house that actually phsically pulled down walls, cked in doors and dropped large burning plastic thrash cans off the top floor to the ground floor, no that was the rich frat brothers who engaged in that activity and you know something BDC knows this. This is not to say that an Irish group didn't engage in the same type of activity(it wouldn't surprise me), but lets create a level playing field here and set the bar correctly. Frat guys engage in this activity daily throughout the Summer, if an Irish group do the same then judge them within that context because they also rent and pay money to BDC. While I lived in Santa Barbara I held down a full time job and worked a second job at the weekends. I loved the whole experience in SB. I wouldn't let an article like this dissuade me from returning. I understand the journalist in what she is trying to say but she needs to be careful with the language she is using. This isn't some PC rant but a call for fairness and substantiation in journalistic writing.
Previous Month
Posted on November 27 at 4 a.m.
I'm not sure how much to read into this article. I'm not sure if the writer simply doesn't have the necessary language capabilities to express her feelings or if there is something more sinister at play here. California, the home of my hero, the great John Steinbeck, a place of so many possiblities in art, literature and expression and yet articles such as this are still being published? After all that the Californian people have had to endure, from the great depression, peace and love and all the dreams that came with it through to the present and what do we find...lazy, unsubstantiated, unconsciously racist journalism. It's not that the fact that the journalist is lazy or racist it's just that she doesn't realise that the written word can be interpreted in so many ways and that it doesn't take much for a reader to..."read between the lines". I found it odd how someone needed to tell us that they were studying Martin Luther’s 95 Theses and then proceed to produce an article with the following line "Another friend claimed he knew someone who was raped by an Irish person last summer". Now am I reading this right? Whether or not this was true we are never told? Why allow conjecture and speculation enter into an article without proving or disproving it. The journalist in many ways seems to want to disprove this and other rumours yet in no way is the rumour given any validation or answer?? Now I'm not saying Irish kids who go away for the Summer are perfect, we aren't but I do know that we come from a small country. If someone was accused or rape in Santa Barbara while on a J1 visa our country would be up in arms because our media is very quick to jump on issues such as this. Also can I say that I spent a Summer as an Irish student in BDC rented frat house in Isla Vista. I can only speak from my own experiences but it wasn't myself or any of the Irish people in the house that actually phsically pulled down walls, cked in doors and dropped large burning plastic thrash cans off the top floor to the ground floor, no that was the rich frat brothers who engaged in that activity and you know something BDC knows this. This is not to say that an Irish group didn't engage in the same type of activity(it wouldn't surprise me), but lets create a level playing field here and set the bar correctly. Frat guys engage in this activity daily throughout the Summer, if an Irish group do the same then judge them within that context because they also rent and pay money to BDC. While I lived in Santa Barbara I held down a full time job and worked a second job at the weekends. I loved the whole experience in SB. I wouldn't let an article like this dissuade me from returning. I understand the journalist in what she is trying to say but she needs to be careful with the language she is using. This isn't some PC rant but a call for fairness and substantiation in journalistic writing.
On Irish in Isla Vista