During the 1960s, the liberal was a feared animal, a person with dangerous ideas and the vulgarity to voice them. The liberal was outspoken and caustic, and although he or she held many values dear, the fundamental ones were tolerance and acceptance.

Wasn't the main reason behind the civil rights movement, the women's liberation movement and the sexual revolution the idea that humans had value due to their humanity and that respect of others is the foundation of respect of society and of self? What happened to that liberalism that has caused it to spawn this noxious concept, "Political Correctness"?

I won't say that liberals did not throw stones; their most potent weapon was the uncovering of hypocrisy and the laying of blame on those deserving censure. But they didn't prevent others from speaking.

Today's heirs of liberalism are staining the term by applying the same intolerance to conservatives and moderates that they have suffered. We have not yet reached the level of "Liberal McCarthyism" that some pundits have accused Political Correctness of, but we we may be getting too close.

Any of you liberals out there who have stayed with me this far must be muttering "Reactionary" as you dismiss my charges. "Conservative bias!" Well, I coinsider myself to be liberal.

I've voted in the last three presidential elections, and I haven't backed a winner yet. I like aid to education, a graduated income tax and Head Start. I thought it took a lot of political courage for Walter Mondale to pledge to raise taxes to an electorate deluded enough to fall for supply-side economics. I like the separation of church and state, the Equal Rights Amendment and the call for a sexual orientation clause for Penn State.

But I will not be linked to those who would run conservatives off campus, or prevent non-PCs the same chance for scholarships or jobs due to untrendy political views. It wasn't that long ago that Americans posted signs such as "Whites Only," "No Jews Allowed," "Irish Need Not Apply." Do we liberals really want to say "Republicans Need Not Apply?"

It was Martin Luther King, Jr.'s wish for an America where "children are judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." Let's make the most of his legacy by expanding it to all situations, even ideological ones. Let's have some debates that generate more light than heat. I don't expect either the liberals or conservatives to convert everyone to their respective sides. But I do think liberals can lead the way back to rational discourse and away from the politics of hate.