In the Jan. 23 issue of The Pacer, former Back Row staff writer Rory Higgins wrote a eulogy for the newsletter that he was once a part of. It’s a shame that he did this. It’s a shame for more than one reason.

The shame is that he was not the one to have written it. He did not contribute to the editorial decisions of the newsletter and he never represented The Back Row with anything more than his articles and a photograph in The Jackson Sun.

He ignored accuracy and he ignored what it was meant to represent. He painted the ‘departure’ of The Back Row as his own personal loss. He also painted its publication as his own accomplishment. These assessments are not true.

The Back Row has not departed. The faculty that supported it with donations and, more importantly, with inspiration, are still among us. The students that read it are still among us. Many of the writers are around, and more would-be Back Row writers are among us and arriving each fall.

As long as students and faculty are willing to delve into issues deeper than a press release, as long as they are willing to think of things from more than just one point of view, then it is not gone. The editor may leave and all the rest of the writers will leave as well. It’s not for one malcontented staff writer to mourn his loss of a personal platform. The Back Row was not UTM’s platform for the personal rants of individuals. It didn’t exist for writers to see their names in print. The Pacer can serve that role.

It was an expression of dissatisfaction with the school newspaper and the popular opinion on campus. It is only the expression which changes with time. Sometimes it is called The Back Row. Other times it is called the Fourteenth Circle and still other times it is an art exhibit. It can even be an opinion printed in The Pacer.

This is why no eulogy should be written for The Back Row. Any student on campus can express his or her self; that has not changed. If there is a vacuum, it is only waiting eagerly to be filled.

The only thing that has changed are the individuals behind it. Luckily, it was never about the individuals. It needed all of us, the writers, editors, students and faculty, but what it dealt with was far beyond any individual. That will not change. The Back Row is not dead and has not left. It is only waiting to be expressed in a new form and anyone can start working on it. Someone might be doing it right now.

Steve Helgeson is the former editor and founder of The Back Row.