Christians support Gay marriage
To the Editor:
As a devout member of the Christian faith, I take issue with Melanie’s statements that “The Christian religion believes it’s wrong to have same sex marriage” and that “being gay is an abomination” (“Gay Marriage Debate Alive and Healthy at USM”, 3/15/04). Not all Christians feel that homosexuality and same-sex marriages are sinful. Indeed, there are a substantial number of churches who welcome members of the GLBTQ community with open arms. My own church has a great many same-sex couples in its congregation, and it is my fervent wish that someday they will be able to legally marry, enjoying all of the privileges and rights that lawful union entails.
Too often the Christian voices heard in mainstream media are voices like Melanie’s, conservative and right-wing. It’s important for the public to know that there are also a great many progressive Christians as well, those who understand that Christ’s message of “Love one another” applies to all people, regardless of who they are. Only when people truly take this message to heart can we hope to relieve the burden of oppressed people everywhere.
Bethany Colavito
Junior
Social Work Major
A liberal with proof
To the Editor:
In response to Jonathan Read’s claim that “liberals . . . never need to give proof when attacking a conservative,” here’s some documentation to chew on:
Ken Lay. In addition to ripping off California electricity consumers, he was a founding contributor to Bush’s failed 1978 campaign for Congress. Bush nearly awarded Lay a cabinet post but instead let him select Department of Energy regulators to set energy policy. Check out bushwatch.net/enron, Detroit News, Saturday, April 8, 2000. http://www.buzzflash.com/editorial/2002/02/020802_Bush_Beds_Enron.html
Environment. Bush calls a logging plan a “Healthy Forests Initiative” and a plan that increases power plant emissions a “Clear Skies Initiative.” He exempts military facilities from environmental laws (Gainesville Times, April 22, 2003). Also, Bush just cut environmental spending by seven percent (Reuters, Feb. 2, 2004).
The Patriot Act. Mr. Read says that if one is not a terrorist, one has nothing to worry about. Then why did Attorney General John Ashcroft recently try to use these laws to determine the circumstances under which women have had abortions? The best phrase to describe this is “big government.” See “Ashcroft’s Terrorism Policies Dismay Some Conservatives,” http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.25C.con.ashcroft.htm
9/11/01: The Administration knew months in advance something was going to happen (Ashcroft stopped flying on commercial airlines), and they turned their backs while it was happening. During the attacks Bush’s heroic action consisted of reading a story about a girl’s goat in the Booker Elementary School. A massively documented timeline can be read at, http://www.cooperativeresearch.net.
The Religious Right: Bush said, “God told me to strike at Al Qaida and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East.” (Common Dreams website, June 30, 2003). Doesn’t that raise the hairs on the back of your neck?
I won’t even pursue the four-letter words that currently dog this administration: AWOL, IRAQ, and LIAR. (See the video clip of Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld at http://www.moveon.org/censure/caughtonvideo/).
Mike Bendzela
English Department
Police should attend convocation
To the Editor:
I was walking by the library the other day and noticed a USM police interceptor, its 400 hp V-8 idling, its occupant, head down, presumably working on police reports. Approximately 500 feet away, a drilling company was digging a 1,500 foot deep geothermal well for USM’s new community education building.
How are these two phenomena related? They are elements in an increasingly intense struggle between the police force and the campus community. The thermal wells are part of a whole range of efforts to make USM more sustainable, less hostile to nature, and less expensive to run. Sustainability has become the new order, the new ethic, at colleges all across America.
The USM police represent the old order. They are maneuvering with both energy and craft to buy two new police interceptors just like their old ones. The police argue that they need 130 mile per hour interceptors to assure the safety of the USM campus, and that no other car will do. They have rejected an administration offer to buy virtually equivalent cars which use 25 percent less fuel.
The battle is in part a clash of symbols. The police believe interceptors are a necessary symbol of authority and professionalism. The campus community sees them as a sign of the past, of resistance against sustainability, of Grand Dad’s Oldsmobile.
The larger issue is whether each component of the university will strive for sustainability or whether some, like the USM police, will be excused. The police, supposedly guardians of the law, are challenging the ethos and the governance of the university.
The USM police’s affection for its interceptors raises another important issue: Is sitting in a police car the most effective way to patrol the campus? Or do we need a real CAMPUS police, which would patrol on foot and bicycle, and would not have its head down, motor idling, filling out reports.
Alfred Padula
President, Green Campus Consortium of Maine
Sex industry breeds violence
The recent sex, drugs and sports scandal at the University of Colorado is another awful example of how a little innocent fun with the sexual entertainment industry and a few glasses of beer is a formula proven to increase the campus and community risk of violence against women.
Seven university football players, all allegedly entertained with alcohol and professional strippers during recruitment, have been accused of rape.
If stripping was about appreciating a woman’s beauty, what could be wrong with that? If it was about honoring and enjoying the naked human form, who could complain? But that would be art.
Stripping and pornography are different. It’s about exchanging cash for sexual stimulation. It’s a form of prostitution that ultimately sells pumped-up drunk men a crazy idea about women in general-that the world is full of hot, horny coeds, and hot, horny housewives, and hot, horny teens.
After certain losers are exposed to this fantasy enough times, a certain percentage will walk out of show hard-on in hand and think it’s not such a bad idea to try to express their feelings on the first woman they trip over.
It’s appealing to some men to have girlfriends open to having a little fun with pornography and strip joints. You might find yourselves telling each other that this stuff is completely harmless, maybe even healthy for your sex life. But I’m asking you to consider evidence that isn’t stacking up in favor of the sexual entertainment industry.
The sexual entertainment industry makes money by promoting sexual addictions and dangerous fantasies about the availability and willingness of women. And over and over again — in the military, in the universities, in sports, as well as in rock n’ roll — those fantasies and addictions are being associated with incidents of violence.
Jenny Ruth Yasi
English major
Take Back the Night this month
When I tell people that I work at the Women’s Resource Center, I am often asked, “Where is the Men’s Resource Center?” and sometimes, I wonder that, too. I believe in the purpose of the center. Bringing power and celebration to the community of women at USM is of great importance; but I also believe in equal rights within a community and that no one deserves to be given more than others. Without mutual support, a community cannot exist. This is where an upcoming Portland event, Take Back the Night, comes into play.
Take Back The Night is an international rally that originated in San Francisco in 1978. The purpose of Take Back The Night is to bring men, women and children together in an effort to raise awareness about sexual abuse, domestic violence and the victims these crimes take. It is an open invitation for community members to take a stand against these crimes and to make the night safe for everyone.
As a woman, I have encountered moments during the day when I doubted my safety on the streets, and I refused to walk alone at night. This event is important to me because of that, because no one should have to be afraid. No one should have their rights taken away just because the sun goes down, and no criminal should be given the right to put their hands on my body or anyone else’s when no one is there to protect us. This problem can only be solved through awareness, and awareness can only be spread through attention. I cordially invite anyone reading this to attend this year’s march, to show your support of the mediation of this issue and to fight for fearlessness.
Take Back the Night will be held April 30. To get more information please stop by the Women’s Resource Center or call us at 780-4996. To be silent is to accept, so speak out against sexual abuse and domestic violence and claim the nights as yours. This event is open to every one, high attendance will strengthen the cause.
Morgan Demers