A Happy Medium by Erin Murtaugh

This school year, I was blessed to be not only editor of the high school newspaper, but also the iMag, the student literary magazine.

Every year, the iMag comes out at the end of the school year and is unveiled at an event called Coffeehouse. Coffeehouse is a time for students to show off their talents and wind down at the end of the year. Wednesday was the big day.

During sixth-hour Coffeehouse, a young man decided he was going to rap.

Fine. Generally Coffeehouse is acoustic music, poetry and similar acts only, but we let it slide. He showed multiple people his lyrics, and there was no profanity in it. Just clear lyrics with a good message.

Once he got on stage and got his rap rolling, he started dropping profanities left and right.

Not cool, dude.

I didn’t put weeks of hard work and stress into Coffeehouse to potentially get in trouble over my event. So the young man was removed from the stage.

Then he starts being disrespectful to people off stage.

Really not cool.

Now, I’m being snooted at by some girl via Facebook I don’t even know for being stuck up and hating rap music.

Excuse me? Putting all my hard work into an event makes me stuck up? Honey, no.

Also, if she really knew me she would know I listen to rap music. If people would open their eyes and ears, they might understand what is going on around them.

Coffeehouse is a school event. Do you not expect to get in trouble for swearing immensely in school? There’s definitely ways to getting your point across without using profanity.

 

Albert Lea resident Erin Murtaugh is a senior at Albert Lea High School. She will be an intern this summer for the Albert Lea Tribune. She can be reached at murtaugh.erin@gmail.com.