STRAIGHT charter would celebrate ignorance

To paraphrase Thomas Jefferson, as Americans we can tolerate error of opinion as long as reason is left free to combat it.

Last Tuesday, Darin Loccarini exercised his first amendment rights. He wrote a letter to the editor that laid out his organization's aims and needs. His organization, STRAIGHT, a group that seeks to oppose homosexuality, is trying to get a University charter.

The University and the Undergraduate Student Government are in a bind because these students, as ignorant and closed-minded as they are, do have the right to form a group to advance their interests. USG has a problem, but I do not, because I am an opinion columnist and the voice of reason that is left free to combat error of opinion.

Mr. Loccarini and all of your followers, listen up: you are idiots. I am not using "idiot" in the namecalling sense of the word, but rather in the Webster's definition of "ignorant person."

By opposing homosexuality all you do is expose yourself for the ignorant people you are. Mark Twain said it is one thing to be taken for a fool, and quite another to open your mouth and remove all doubt. By stating heterosexuality must be in opposition to homosexuality because the two lifestyles are in conflict you have removed all doubt.

The KKK could just as easily argue that we need blacks to show the superiority of whites. Are you then aligning yourself with the KKK and Hitler in search of some superior, white, blue-eyed, blondehaired, heterosexual super-race?

What I really don't understand is why you feel this need to attack a segment of the population that in no way infringes on your rights as a heterosexual. Gay people are not running around advocating the end of heterosexuality, so why are you trying to end something that is in no way a threat to you?

Maybe it's because a gay man hit on you, and in your ignorance, you were offended instead of flattered. I'm heterosexual, and my only complaint is no gay man has found me attractive enough to hit on me.

Maybe it's because you fear what you can't understand. We have prejudice and hatred because people like you don't take time to learn about things you don't understand. Instead, you hide behind a false sense of moral superiority and cultivate a hatred out of ignorance.

When I was five years old, I met a man named Stan Hamilton. He was the father of one of my father's players, and a black man. He was a black panther in his youth, and he grew into a man who dedicated his life to helping people, all people, from a youth of hatred and distrust.

He taught me about the black history I never read in a textbook. He taught me to empathize with the problems of minorities in America. My parents taught me not to be prejudiced, and Stan taught me to accept diversity as a strength in America.

Gay people face prejudice everyday because they love a member of the same sex. Last time I checked, love was a good thing. Love was something to be celebrated, not condemned.

STRAIGHT is not celebrating anything other than ignorance and prejudice. Loccarini and his merry band are not helping to solve a problem in America, they are perpetuating one.

The reason STRAIGHT should be denied a charter is simple -- you are not trying to advance any aims, but rather you are attempting to eliminate a segment of our population. USG and the University should not be required to charter hate groups.

If STRAIGHT is given a charter, then every other hate group should get one as well. Think about the great doors we could open -- the Penn State KKK, the Penn State Neo-Nazis, the Lion Alliance against Jews, the Penn State anti-Christian coalition, etc.

I hope the University and USG are smart enough to not give legitimacy to a group that has nothing to offer other than ignorance.

The last thing I want to get across to Darin and STRAIGHT is this: take all of that energy and focus on something that will make your school community better, rather than dividing it and making the environment worse.

America's strength is its diversity. We are stronger as a nation when we pull together all of the attitudes and differences among us to form the "great American melting pot." We have been a country that has succeeded on the strengths of our people, all our people, regardless of race, creed or sexual orientation.

Don't try to destroy that. Too often in our world we see the violence and hatred that ignorant masses inflict on those individuals who had the audacity to be different. America was and is supposed to be the land of the free and the home of the brave.

The University has an obligation to help foster that belief, and they can start by not granting Mr. Loccarini and STRAIGHT their charter.

Let's not make this the land of the oppressed and the home of the ignorant.

At least, that's what the voice of reason thinks.