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Our e-mail box overflows every few days, so a part of my job description is to sift through every letter we get. We rarely publish anything we receive from outside the Daily Bruin.

You might see this as evidence of how competitive it is to get something printed in our opinion page, but if we decided to lighten up and run everything handed to us, you’d see a very different Viewpoint.

You’d end up reading ads for porn and erectile dysfunction medication every day. You’d get to hear about how separate women from separate countries all have somehow gained a mysterious inheritance they can only claim with your help. And for multilingual readers, you’d see some Russian letters run side-by-side with Chinese submissions.

Basically, all we get is junk. For an opinion-page e-mail box, there is a disappointing number of opinions.

What the Daily Bruin would like is a little more audience participation. We’d like to hear from more people willing to speak out.

And sure, we have the loud-mouthed columnists and cartoonists who love to juggle their beliefs in front of a crowd, but the section can’t thrive on their voices alone.

An opinion page works best when readers switch the focus to themselves, and as a paper that is supposed to represent our community, the kid who uses my section as an affordable gift-wrap alternative for his girlfriend’s birthday present probably has as much to say as the chancellor.

The criteria for topics we’d like to see from readers is simple: Write what you’d want to read about.

For example, in this edition of Viewpoint, members of our undergraduate student council share what they want to see in UCLA’s next leader; a student-athlete struggles with being one of the few black students in this year’s incoming class; and a fifth-year student recounts her life in Tanzania.

But in the end, we just want to hear from readers who have something original to say. I’m tired of hearing how UCLA is one of the best universities in the world. I wouldn’t have signed up if it wasn’t a decent place. Tell me instead about how we’re falling apart, and tell me how we can put it back together.

I can understand a fear of writing. There is always some worry about laying yourself out there for people to scrutinize. But much of what separates those who write from just another casual reader is the lack of hesitation.

After asking so many people to contribute to the page, the shrug-offs have become familiar: “Who cares what I think?” “Does it really matter?” “But I can’t write.” But those who actually write a piece have shaken off these concerns. They’ve come to realize their voices have that far-reaching range necessary to pull minds one way or another.

This doesn’t mean that as long as you write something, it’ll get published. Readers should not have to sit through a random unsupported accusation against the president or a mundane recount of how mean your professor is.

New York Times Op-Ed Editor David Shipley noted a concern that must be common among others in the opinion-section business when he described the real estate of his page – sparse yet valuable. Some submissions and letters just don’t make the cut.

But the competition isn’t as rough as you think, and although you might believe you are incapable of writing something decent, you probably aren’t.

When readers try their hand at writing in to Viewpoint, they might not persuade every opponent that comes across their words. But you can’t win anyone over without putting pen to paper.

Opinion pieces lend themselves to an intimate kind of knowledge. You shake hands with a thought; you ask it out to dinner; you squirm in your seats until you reach some agreement; and during that final encounter on the front porch, you either stay or go.

Hopefully, you’ll at least give us a chance to meet you.

Guigayoma is the 2006-2007 Viewpoint editor. E-mail him at jguigayoma@media.ucla.edu. Send general comments to viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.