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Mission Statement  :  Contributors  :  Join The main goal of The Oakland Independent is to give ourselves and other students a chance to grow as writers and as individuals by expressing our views about our world and our school without having to deal with the influence and censorship of a university. There are hundreds of journalism students at OU and The Oakland Post is the only previous on-campus source for students to write for and attempt to get published. Becoming a contributor to The Oakland Independent will help students build resumés and allow them to give their true and unedited opinions about our school, society, or basically anything they feel is interesting. The goal here is to show the OU community what an authentic independent news source really sounds like. Besides the censorship, the main problem with other news sources is that most of the information and articles are really boring and completely irrelevant to our lives. The Oakland Independent strives to stay relevant and relate to people on a level they will understand. To cover stories and issues that spark genuine curiosity, are of reasonable concern, and pertain to our student audience. I aim to try and reach the people who wouldn't normally pick up a paper and read an article. I want to turn the non-readers into readers. I want to entertain and enlighten; to make people laugh and learn at the same time. I want to grab the attention of the people who think they're too cool to read. People have it in their heads that all journalists are a bunch of nerds who use really big words and think they're smarter than everyone else. The Oakland Independent is here to change that. It has been created to smash the previous misconceptions and stereotypes of what journalism is and should be.   I believe that the key to life is honesty. In every aspect of our life: in our work, relationships, and especially with ourselves, honesty is the pinnacle of all virtues. The thing that intrigues me the most about journalism is its constant search for truth. Finding truth brings simplicity and helps me make sense of a seemingly senseless world.  Welcome to the undersized journalist revolution. -Johnny Michael, founder. Email the Independent.