Final Word – A Letter from the Editor

I’ll admit there are times at The Daily Free Press where we ask for the impossible. We ask our student reporters to consider everything they see with a critical eye, despite being in the most idealistic time of their lives. We ask nationally-recognized politicians and public figures to regard our student reporters, some just three months out of high school, on the same level as professional journalists. Most of all, we ask everyone ‘- our editors, reporters, photographers as well as our readers ‘- to stop and look at the world around them, and learn to question not only themselves, but the people they put in charge. Yes, we at The Daily Free Press ask for the impossible ‘- and time and time again, we’re finding out that impossible is only a state of mind.’

This semester could not have been a finer example of that. This semester, we met with mayoral candidates in a historical election for the city of Boston. We kept a close eye on how the administration handled the H1N1 crisis that was shaking up college campuses across America, and how our campus struggled with print quota cutbacks. With these stories, as with all journalistic pursuits, we encountered victories and triumphs, but also a lot of closed doors and unanswered phone calls. But if there is just one thing The Daily Free Press has taught me throughout my five semesters, it is that ‘no’ doesn’t mean a dead end; it means there’s another possibility elsewhere.

I said at the beginning of this semester that The Daily Free Press exists for the revolution ‘- for the revolution of our readers’ minds, bodies and souls. With any revolution, it is the people behind the scenes that allow the revolution to take flight. We would never have been able to achieve what we did this semester without the hard work and dedication of each and every one of my editors and staff writers. For that, I thank them ‘- for finding the energy from little to no sleep, for finding the persistence from every unwilling source and for finding the story beyond the propaganda.

But we also couldn’t have done it without our readers. The Daily Free Press is first and foremost your newspaper, and you’ve done wonders in making it so. As I said before, The Free Press will be around for as long as there are students who need a voice and students who need to be informed. I know at times it looks like that will be impossible ‘- The Daily Free Press understands Daily Free Recession just as much as the next guy. But if this semester serves to teach us anything, it’s that the impossible is actually quite possible.

Thanks for a great semester, and remember, impossible is nothing.

Vivian Ho

The Daily Free Press

Editor-in-Chief Fall 2009