Dear editor,
Today in the Dining Hall on the Gorham campus, I was reminded about how much work we still have to do for certain populations on the campus to feel fully part of the community.
A group of students walked by the table I was staffing and one was telling a joke. The question: “What’s the difference between Hitler and a gay man.” The answer: “45 degrees.”
She held up her right arm as if in a Nazi salute, but the wrist was limp. The group laughed.
I was so dumbfounded, it felt like a punch in the stomach. I wanted to yell STOP. But I froze.
I wish I had said “The difference is: one was a mass murderer and the other was one of the marginalized that WAS murdered.” I wish I had said that one was determined to and nearly accomplished the destruction of a race of people (Jews), and one continues to be regular recipients of verbal and physical assault. I wish I had asked what about that “joke” they could possibly find funny.
Because my conscience could not leave my lack of action alone, I had to at least sit down and write this letter, a confession of sorts, before leaving campus for the day.
As someone who has spent my entire adult life in being an ally to my brothers and sisters who are GLBTQ and in working on prejudice reduction efforts in Maine and in the church, I am so powerfully reminded that even in an enlightened climate, ignorance abounds.
Please allow me to be a voice naming the spiritual assault that happens to all of us when words of hate continue to be spoken on campus; to be a voice for a renewed energy to create a climate based on respect and compassion.
It is important for me to say at this point that most of the USM students I see daily embody those traits. I see regular examples of positive community.
But as long as a small group of individuals practice intolerance and hate, USM and all of its community members are wounded. Let us all find ways to be catalysts of healing.
The Rev. Shirley Bowen, Associate Chaplain (Episcopal)
Interfaith Chaplain’s Office
Portland Campus