This past week, the message chalked on pathways around campus has been, “Do You Agree With Byron?” Byron is a senior undergrad student who’s put up a testimony both [online](http://iagreewithbyron.com/index.cgi/statement.html), and in the student newspaper. All of this is sponsored by the [Campus Crusade For Christ](http://www.crusade.org/).

I guess I was a little disappointed to find out today that this wasn’t a brilliant home-grown UWaterloo idea, but that similar ‘I Agree With…’ campaigns are going on at a number of North American schools, including [Mac](http://www.iagreewithdave.com) and [Queens](http://www.iagreewithjamie.com/whosjamie.html).

Many of the messages surrounding popular buildings have been defaced or [supplemented](http://uwmike.com/photos/fuckbyron.jpg) in various creative ways by counter-minded individuals, and similarly, the online forum is beginning to be overrun by single-post users who drop links to Infidels and then never return.

Ultimately, whatever you believe, if you plan to take a stand on it in some way, make sure you’ve thought about a bit. Someone who claims his opposition to be blind followers and then cuts and pastes huge articles from other sites as ‘debate’ is useless except as part of a larger screaming body of [Cyber Sisters](http://www.winternet.com/~mikelr/flame4.html).

I guess the lack of open, intellectual debate is the biggest frustration I have with this whole issue (and many others, really). Why can’t intellectual people just discuss things _without_ resorting to insults and mud-slinging?

On a lighter note, for some good, Waterloo fun and hijinx, check out our very own [PhoneBooking.com](http://phonebooking.com/main.php), now hosted separately from the school, since it was eating up too much bandwidth…

Mike

PS — And for the record, yes, I do agree with Byron.

← Earlier Later → Posted at 7:26 pm to Literature.