Welcome to the real world.

You're in for the ride of your life. Please keep your hands and feet inside the cars. Do not stand up.

This real world moves fast. People have thoughts and ideas, and they are quick to share them with you. Sometimes you will agree; sometimes you won't. This real world has friendships, battlegrounds and infrequent cease-fires.

This real world moves too fast -- that might just be the problem. The people, places and things that scape the land in this real world move at a feverish pace.

There are leaders who direct policy. There are athletes who play the games. There are activists who lobby and cajole. There are fundamentalists, fanatics, lunatics and everyday "Janes" and "Joes." None of them march to the beat of the same drum.

Then there are the media -- more specifically in this real world, The Daily Collegian. We are the chasers. Our job is to seek out the different paths all the Janes and Joes are taking, then make some sense of it in each morning's paper.

It is not an easy job to anticipate and track so many people going so many directions so fast. That is how we end up in the middle of controversy.

Controversy itself isn't trouble. However, the way we in the media sometimes deal with controversy is. The only way to solve problems and settle disputes is through careful dialogue and understanding from all sides.

The Collegian has had its share of controversy. Veteran readers don't need me to remind them of plenty of controversial columnists and editorials from the recent and not-so-recent past. New readers, you too, inevitably will hear a hearty supply of "Collegian stories."

I'm not writing today to dispel myths. I'm not writing to make excuses for the things we have printed and will print. I am writing to offer a little insight into how controversy seems to erupt around some of the material we publish.

The Column: About a year and a half ago Chino Wilson wrote one of the most controversial columns to hit this campus. It is impossible to characterize Wilson's entire piece in just a paragraph or two, and that is where the trouble started.

Wilson wrote a volatile column that touched on sensitive racial issues and promoted violence as a means of defense, which many people in our real world had a hard time swallowing. After the column appeared, two protesters picketed in front of our offices. A reporter for a national wire service filed a story that exaggerated the situation, and various local and national media outlets reprinted excerpts and summaries of the column.

People on the streets in our real world and the real world talked and argued about the column, often relying on second-hand information and incomplete descriptions about the original column. The Collegian took a lot of heat for it.

In response, the Collegian's Board of Opinion published the First Amendment in the editorial box on this very page. Many readers never questioned the Collegian's constitutional protection, but focused on "why?" the editors at the time did what they did.

Perhaps if the editors had taken the time to explain in an open forum on the Opinions page some of their reasons for printing the column, some of the confusion and excitement could have been prevented. Of course, I look back on the situation with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight.

That ability to look back on past mistakes has been one of my most valuable tools as I wade through the uncharted territory as editor.

Roller Coaster Ride: There are a lot of things I have witnessed in my three years on the Collegian staff. We have covered some stories well, and we have made some grave mistakes.

Sometimes a reporter or editor spells a name wrong or misquotes a source. Sometimes a story is missing an important element. A lot of times a story turns out just fine.

As we climb the hills and scream and laugh as we drop on our roller coaster ride, we will experience the joys of success and the sicknesses of failure.

You may sit in a classroom reading a story this semester, and something in the words might frustrate you. The paper you read might infuriate you -- just as our successes might blow right by you.

I sit with a team of more than 120 people in a classroom -- the Collegian. We are working on stories, taking photographs and creating graphics all for the sake of learning. You are an important part of that process. You must be an active watchdog toward the material we publish.

Our reporters and editors strive to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. We are watchdogs -- aggressive and hungry. That is our job. We certainly pursue honesty, truth and fairness. However, pursuit can fall short.

What I urge each of you to do is recognize what we are trying to do. We offer what we believe to be a complete representation of the news and views in our real world and the one "out there." If you ever have questions about the material we publish, call me at the office.

In the end, what is important is that you, the readers, must afflict us. You must hold us accountable. We will continue to print the news and views every day. We will try to learn from our mistakes and use our 20/20 hindsight.

I ask you to come to us when you have a problem.

Hold on. It will be a wild ride.