Dear Reader,

Welcome back.

It’s been a long, hot summer in the United States.

News-wise, it was kicked off by President Donald J. Trump’s May 9 firing of former F.B.I. Director James B. Comey. But it did not stop there. Since the summer began, Trump has fired his chief of staff (Reince Priebus), his chief strategist (Stephen K. Bannon) and his brand new communications director (Anthony Scaramucci, whom he had hired just ten days before). Radical right-wing demonstrators took to the streets in Charlottesville, Va., resulting in the death of one counter-protestor. Right now, as I write you, Houston is flooded under nearly two feet of rain from Hurricane Harvey– and heavy rain is expected to continue falling in the area for three more days. There was even one day this past summer where the moon blocked the sun.

I’m being facetious with the last one, but you get the point. We live in extraordinary times.

Our times are the times that children will learn about their social studies classes fifty years down the road and think, “Wow, that really happened?”

Our times demand fierce, diligent journalism and a higher level of public and civic engagement among our people.

I believe Manhattan College students are ready and prepared to answer that call to civic engagement.

And those of us here at The Quadrangle are ready and prepared to answer the call to do journalism.

We look forward to another year of your continued trust and readership. And I look forward to another semester of sharing this space with you.

Good luck this fall.

Sincerely,

Stephen Zubrycky

Editor in Chief