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December 07, 2004
Diversity is dysfunctional in one way
Since I have arrived at Hamline, I have heard the word “diversity” thrown around a lot. The faculty and the students here place a great emphasis on accepting people of all sexualities and races.
It is awesome to welcome people of different sexualities and with differing cultural backgrounds, and Hamline definitely achieves this goal. Could you imagine if you saw a sign on campus that read “If you are a homosexual, you deserve to die”?
It would be horrible, and I would be the first to see that actions such as this are looked down upon and the perpetrators punished. The whole campus would be marching with torches to see this stopped. It is funny how Hamline diversity works in the case of sexual preference, but not in intellectual cases, such as differing political beliefs. Both students and faculty č yes, at least one member of our esteemed faculty č have expressed their feelings that myself and fellow conservatives deserve to die since we voted for
President Bush in the recent election. I have seen nothing in e-mails from Students for Peace that denounce this kind of speech.
These people are blinded by Hamline’s extremely liberal environment and do not seem to understand that there are viewpoints out there other than theirs č in fact, judging by the election results, much more than many students may think. I am proud of my vote for President Bush and wish more of the students on campus would open their minds just a little bit. The absolutely ludicrous claims leveled at the president and Republicans are insulting. Once you graduate from Hamline and leave academia for the real world, your intolerance of other people’s beliefs will not make you friends like it does here. Now, I understand that this is a minority of Democrats on campus, so please, no angry letters accusing me of stereotyping the liberal base. I would really like to see some of the Democrats being critical of this kind of behavior.
Here is some advice: Harsh language and angry protests are not helping your party.
The ultimate deterrent to diversity is narrow-mindedness.
The definition of “liberal” contains phrases such as “free of bigotry” and “tolerant of the ideas and behaviors of other.” This does not just refer to physical and cultural aspects of a person, but also to ideas that disagree with yours. Think about the kind of person you claim to be and the way you actually act, or please learn a new word, “hypocrite.”
Mike Fuchs
CLA Student
Posted by msveum at December 7, 2004 11:15 AM