Letters to the Editor

Strides met with vulgarity

One of the hardest things a homosexual person faces in life is coming out of the closet and accepting the fact that they are homosexual. The effort BGLAS put forth with the positive messages (which were very tastefully written after National Coming Out Day) makes it easier for people having difficulty dealing with homosexuality. It also provides an opportunity for them to realize they aren't the only ones out there.

On the contrast, the hate messages that were written the next evening make it very difficult for these same people who need the positive, uplifting messages which reinforced the fact that nothing is wrong with homosexuality.

Freedom of speech is a constitutional right protected under the first amendment. However, wouldn't it be more appropriate to display one's freedom of speech in a way that doesn't deface another's freedom of speech?

Maybe it have been better for the person(s) who wrote their hateful messages to display their objections in a different area or way?

In a way that doesn't cross out and write over positive images? A way which expresses freedom of speech, instead of implying wrongness.

I would hope that in the future, people would take into account that homosexuality exists and that it is not going away. It may be better to learn more about homosexuality and incorporate the learning into acceptance.

--Ryan Shackleford
Senior, Sociology

Where is your rage?

Where is your anger? Where is your rage?

I am a Resumed Education student; it is my first semester at Brown University. Five years ago my roommate was viciously murdered in our home by two men who targeted him as homosexual. They came one evening when I wasn't there, tortured him with lit cigarettes, then beat him mercilessly with a hammer they had brought with them. He bled to death on the floor.

Naturally, the vicious murder of Matthew Shepard has really angered me, as it probably did you. Like my roommate's murder, Matthew Shepard was targeted because of his sexual orientation. We all may have our own ideas concerning what people should do in the privacy of their own home, but no rational person would agree that the way in which Matthew Shepard was tortured, then killed, was a reasonable reaction to his sexual orientation.

I ask you again: Where is your anger? Where is your rage? Across this country, people have been talking about Matthew's murder and condemning this senseless act of violence perpetrated against one of our own, against a college student who had only begun to question himself and his role within the world around him.

Though the tendency may be great, we don't have to look at Matthew and what happened to him and say to ourselves, "Hey, he was queer. Let the queers deal with it." Regardless of our orientation, we can offer our support, voice our anger, breath on the flame of outrage that has begun to burn over Matthew's vicious murder. I do not advocate violence; I advocate dialogue.

"Why would I want to get involved? I've got mid-terms, I've got practice, I've got a relationship falling down the tubes?"

Because it could happen to you, too. Which one of us doesn't have something, some thought or some opinion, some lifestyle or some look, that someone else might find reprehensible and focus their hatred upon us.

I am making a controversial argument here. I argue that we all have something to loose over Matthew's murder. We all lose our safety. We all lose our ability to walk in this world freely. We all lose that most precious peace of all, peace of mind. But most importantly, we stand to loose what makes us human, we stand to loose our dignity.

I am asking you to do something. I am asking you to do something, despite the fact that you are busy and that it midterms are here, and that there are so many other fun things to do.

I ask you to talk about Matthew. I ask you to speak to your friends and dorm mates, your professors and teaching assistants, even with your parents. Speak of it on the steps of your buildings. Find out from each other what your feelings are. Discuss why Matthew died. Discuss what the loss of this one single life means to the rest of our own lives.

Let's open up the box that must contain your rage. The universities of this great country are filled with some of the brightest people in the world. Let's try to see if there is anything that can be done.

I am sure there is.

--Darren M. Jorgensen, '02
Brown University
(Darren_Jorgensen@brown.edu)

(The hospital that treated Shepard is accepting e-mail and forwarding it to his family at mshepard@libra.pvh.org.)

Parroted Partisan Rhetoric

One would think that members of a university community would look beyond the partisan blather and delve into the real issues at hand. Did the President commit perjury? Did the President obstruct justice or encourage his staff tom obstruct justice? Moreover, did the President commit an impeachable offense? The Congressional inquiries will, one would hope, address these questions and make an appropriate recommendation based on the facts, not on blind partisan support or opposition.

Montgomery seems to have no grasp of the concept of impeachment and Congress's constitutional right (read: obligation) to pursue articles of impeachment if warranted. This is one of the keystones of the separation of powers that Montgomery was whining about -- so that no one branch of the government is above the law.

Everything boils down to tow simple ideas: if Mr. Clinton committed a crime while in office, he should be impeached; if not he should be left alone. However, whether or not articles of impeachment are pursued. Mr. Clinton should be man enough to realize how severely he has damaged the dignity of the office of the president and do the country a favor by resigning.

--James P. Burns
Senior, Comm. Studies

Republicans are nice people

I am neither a Republican nor Democrat but have never missed a vote in 30 years despite a general feeling not of apathy but of futility. This year we voters have an issue in front of us of dire importance -- impeachment -- and a clear vision of what will happen if we don't rise up and stop it. I have high hopes that the rest of the Americans who are sick and tired of this gang in Congress -- mostly aging white males rather like myself in appearance but seemingly without brain or spine -- will throw off their apathy and march to the polls to preserve our democracy. I don't know who said it first, or why, but let's rally now and shout it on November 3 so that the echoes shake up Washington and give them a turnaround mandate: "Throw the bums out!"

--Bob Locke