The preceding post contains the article that the Portland State Vanguard has refused to print in its pages.

Caelan MacTavish brainstormed an idea for an article, and the article was published two weeks later, without any revision whatsoever, due to a lack of content. In order to fill space, the article was thrown into publication before it was ready.

The Opinion Editor received the article "A City Divided" on October 4, one week after the term began. MacTavish expected some sort of revision, as he usually received from editors at the Vanguard in the past year that he worked there.

Some of the article was flat out wrong. But it was a brainstorm. The fact that it was published has been higlighted elsewhere as a grave error in the editorial process.

What still frustrates MacTavish is the Vanguard's refusal to allow him to explain his intentions.

After the article was published, MacTavish met with the Opinion Editor, as well as the Managing Editor and the Editor-in-Chief (both of whom were fired from the Vanguard last year for unprofessional conduct) and discussed the understandable outrage over the column.

MacTavish requested that however the response be made, his intentions would be made knnown.

Instead, an apology and retraction were written that acknowledged the mistake on the editor's part, and made no attempt to show that MacTavish's intentions were not racist. This lack prodded MacTavish to speak with Paul Haist, editor of the Jewish Review, to defend his reputation.

For this MacTavish was fired from the Vanguard, and the editors declined to allow him to explain to his readers what his actual intention was in the unedited and inflammatory article.

Instead MacTavish has taken the time and effort to forward the unpublished article above to as many offended readers as he can, to let them know his intention was not what has thus far been portrayed in the media.

In addition to the regret and embarrassment of the article being published in the first place, Caelan MacTavish feels optimistic that this situation has illuminated many people of the complexities of the Arab-Israeli conflict, and may have prodded more individuals to learn more about it. He looks forward to contributing wiser suggestions to the peace process in the future.