That's enough.

You heard me. That’s enough.

Comment privileges for new stories at siuDE.com are revoked until the Daily Egyptian has reason to believe our readers are mature enough to use them.

Congratulations. It is not easy to offend college students who spend most of their time in a newsroom, but some of you have persevered, pursuing standards of bad taste to depths so subterranean we could not help but take note.

It’s hard to say what tipped us over the edge. Maybe it was when one reader had the audacity to write a letter to our Voices section — foolishly accepting responsibility for his thoughts by attaching his name to them — only to have anonymous readers make irrelevant and libelous statements about his love life.  

Or maybe it was Monday, when we published a story about our friend and colleague, Jeff Engelhardt, whose family members were killed last week. Some readers responded with sympathy; others, however, were not duped. They knew we would leap at the chance to write about our friend’s pain, and they made sure to turn the comments on the story into a sophisticated discussion — complete with name-calling — about the way in which the Daily Egyptian acknowledges tragedies that affect its staff.

It could have been these comments, or any number of similar ones, that flipped the switch from annoying to inexcusable. But the real cake-topper was the person who referred to an articulate, passionate student leader — who also happens to be a young black woman — as an “ape.”

I have a number of questions. The first one is: Really?

I would apologize for the sarcasm, but I’m not sorry. I’m angry.

It is troubling to see sexism, racism, immaturity and malice on the screen in front of you. It is sometimes baffling to imagine that comments born of such blatant ignorance and hate came from real people.

It is horrifying to recognize that those people could be sitting next to you.

Lest you think this anger stems from an inability to accept criticism, I assure you that the Daily Egyptian is used to that. Many words have been used to describe this newspaper, but “loved” and “popular” are not often among them. We can take the heat. We sometimes even deserve it.

But no one deserves to be compared to an animal because of his or her race.

The people who are brave enough to sign their names deserve to express their opinions without fear of vicious aspersions about their personal lives. Debate is one thing; libel is another.

One more question. Why do stories about Daily Egyptian employees draw so much fire? Ryan Rendleman, a DE photojournalist, was killed in a car accident last April. Since then, he has been honored by the Illinois Legislature and his name was placed on a national Journalists Memorial in Washington — but our attempts to acknowledge these honors, which state and national news outlets have reported, were met with scores of comments from readers who say we should shut up about him already. Where does this anger come from? Do you have a friend who died, and you don’t think we covered him or her enough? Do you hate people who work at the Daily Egyptian, and you just don’t think they deserve space in the paper?

We would welcome the answers to any of these questions in the form of letters to the editor, which you can send to voices@siude.com. Include your (real) full name and phone number.

And one more thing:

Words are the currency of journalists, the sacrament of writers. Words are incredible, versatile things. They can build bridges or burn them; make people laugh or make them cry; rouse nations or render them speechless. The ability to read the newspaper, to make sense of a sentence, to take pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and communicate your thoughts — this is a priceless gift.

Grow up and stop squandering it.

And sign your freaking name.

Petty is the editor-in-chief of the Daily Egyptian.