As a member of the Justice Editorial Board, I must say these past two and a half weeks have been exhausting. There have been many times when I considered throwing in the towel and calling it a day. I wasn't sure how much more I could handle as both an editor and a student on the Brandeis campus. But two and a half weeks later, I think I am able to look back on the "Justice incident" with a different - and perhaps more objective - state of mind. I think I am finally ready to let go of the immense emotion that was coloring my ability to assess what I really thought about what happened.

Throughout my two-and-a-half years at Brandeis, I have approached the community with a sense of hesitance. While I love the comfort of having such a small, tight-knit campus, I have frequently dismissed it as a unrealistic and sheltered microcosm of the real world.

Our reality, for the most part, stretches from one end of campus to the other and is full of classes, dining halls, extracurricular activities, club sports and other activities never found in our greater society. I have often questioned if I can truly learn how to survive in the "real world" as I am pampered by the silver lining that is Brandeis.

While I cannot say I enjoyed any part of these past few weeks, I have finally gotten a sufficient answer to my eternal question. Watching this campus explode with its range of emotions has reinforced my faith in a Brandeis education.

As I sat through meeting after meeting, attended the many forums held and constantly defended what I felt was right, I started feeling a sense of frustration. What's the point? "Nothing like this would ever occur in the real world," people kept saying.

I can't say those people are wrong. A controversy of this nature probably would never occur in the real world, but, as I thought more and more, I couldn't come up with a good reason as to why it shouldn't occur now.

Although in no way do I condone the hurt felt by everyone involved in this incident, perhaps we should start viewing this incident as a learning experience and truly learn from it.

It is unclear to me why people continue to focus on the messenger rather than the message. Every writer and editor directly responsible for the mistake of printing those hateful words is gone. What is left is a board of editors eager to work as a part of the community, to combat racism.

Yes, this goal is lofty and yes, if reached, this goal is fleeting for us as individuals. Once we leave Brandeis we will be forced to confront a world full of more hatred than we as individuals can combat. We will be thrown into a world that still struggles to overcome simple differences.

But, keeping that in mind, we should use our time here to our advantage. Hatred has no place in this world, and especially not on this campus. We have been through too much in these past two weeks to accept anything less than total convalescence in every sense. I don't suspect this will come soon and I know it won't be easy, but it's time to start picking up the pieces slowly and listening to each other.

While I have been disappointed with some of the administration for their lack of involvement, I applaud many others for their willingness to help us learn from what happened. Maybe this incident will serve as a lesson to them as well. The administration should be our ultimate supporters, not stand by and watch as hatred festers. Yes we should have a sense of independence and learn to deal with situations on our own, but at the same time we need the voice of experience the administration can provide. At the very least, they must provide an educational environment. At best, and we should expect them to be the nurturers of this "free marketplace of ideas" which will engender the best in all of us.

Let's use this as the clarion call to begin the discussion as to how to recognize and respond in a constructive environment to insensitive and hateful attitudes. Most importantly, the discussion should proceed from how to most effectively build that environment to the benefit of all members of this wonderful, diverse and, yes, flawed community.