Klipsun Magazine, 1997, Volume 28, Issue 01 - December

A college campus is supposed to he a place that fosters diversi­ty open-mindedness, exchange of ideas and, above all, freedom of expression. Congratulations to all of you who may have been offended by the material in the September issue of Klipsun but chose to ignore your own bias and open your mind to new ideas. Chris Cooper's art is graphic, even gross. We know that. There have been suggestions that we chose to run the images simply because we had them and wanted to increase our readership through cheap shock value. Some people have questioned the appropriateness of the images for Western's campus. Many others have told us that they thought the drawings were disgusting-but when we asked what they thought of the article, we heard 'oh, I didn't read the article.' Yes, there was an article accompanying Coop's art. A good arti­cle, exploring the motivation of a well-known artist and giving equal space to feminist responses to his art. If you read it, you might have understood why not printing Coop's pictures would have been a cop- out of the very worst kind. Klipsun should not be afraid to print something that may raise a few eyebrows and spark some interest­ing debate among readers. I'm excited about the metamorphosis I've seen in Klipsun over the past year. The stories haven't been shy-we've covered illicit drug use, religion, gambling, HIV testing and, of course, devil girls in a variety of scintillating poses. This magazine has become a forum for discussion of the serious--and sometimes not-so-serious-issues important to college students. Drugs, AIDS, sex and censorship. They may not be the gentlest issues, but they're all out there in the real world. Are you afraid to face them? We're not. Klipsun encourages readers to let us know you feel about any­ thing you see in the magazine. Dur e-mail is klipsun@cc.wwu.edu. Or, if you prefer the old-fashioned way, we're in College Hall 137 or at 65D-3737. Drop us a note.