Yesterday, the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property (TFP) visited University Park. The group's pamphlet ridiculously states that the Supreme Court's recent overturning of Texas's sodomy law "replicates in the moral realm the devastating physical attack perpetrated against the nation on September 11, 2001." The group's literature includes a photograph of Flight 175 hitting the south tower of the World Trade Center.

In the long history of specious claims and analogies, this one deserves a medal. Premeditated and calculated mass murder absolutely eclipses sexual "deviance" in every way. When I confronted some of the young men involved in this campaign, I encountered profound ignorance. A group of late-adolescent boys, serenaded by "Scotland The Brave" on Highland Pipes, attempted to instruct me on "natural law."

As an example, they stated that in all of nature there is no suicide. I suggested lemmings -- small arctic rodents that commit mass suicide. They said they didn't know anything about lemmings. They included homosexuality as a similar violation of natural law. I said male dogs not only have sex with one another to exert dominance but will also "hump" human legs, thus engaging in bestiality. They denied canine homosexuality and ignored bestiality. They denied that ancient Athens or Sparta, great past cultures, accepted homosexuality in any way.

It seems these young men, sent to enlighten us, need some enlightenment themselves. TFP's leaders should know better than to send a group of undereducated adolescent boys to advance their arguments. Perhaps TFP has little genuine faith in their message's power.