Wrong turn choosing the write stuff

Ah, the follies of youth.
I’m sure what seemed like an excellent idea last week to embattled CSU student newspaper editor J. David McSwane, now seems a notion obviously fraught with flaws and peril.
McSwane decided to cash in his 15-minutes of fame last week when he launched the F-bomb in a headline over an editorial. At the time he made the decision to pull the stunt — reportedly as a way to draw attention to how apathetic we have all become regarding our right to free speech — “F” could have stood for freedom or fearless. Impetus for the editorial came from the Tasing incident of a college student who verbally attacked Sen. John Kerry during a Q&A session.
McSwane thought that exercising his right to write any damned thing he pleased would be a good way to draw attention to his newspaper’s opinion that too many students are too cavalier about their First-Amendment rights.
Now, “F” stands for, well, just what McSwane wrote, but in a different tense.
And tense is certainly what he must be feeling as most of the college and apparently half of the country clamor for his ouster.
There’s no doubt that the CSU junior defined sophomoric with his little stunt, but it’s a college newspaper where mistakes, even on this grand of scale, have happened before and will certainly make their way into print again.
Should McSwane see the light that what he did was a cute advertising stunt and a very poor editorial decision, it would be entirely wrong to fire him. It’s the second mistake that should draw lightning when it comes to human beings. Sure, the gaff brought a great deal of embarrassment to the school, the newspaper and to McSwane. But no lives were lost. No one was maimed or scarred.
As long has he admits the mistake, let him stay.
If he refuses to admit what a foolish error in judgment he made, then by all means, send him to the school’s marketing department where he will probably enjoy a brilliant career in advertising.