OPINION
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
To the Editor:
Once again, the righteous stalk the
hallowed halls of academia leaving a
slight smell of fire and brimstone. I refer,
of course, to the Sun/Fun Festival psychic
scandal, an event that has one on-campus
Christian up in arms and the SGA in
search of their collective spine.
Realizing this situation falls within
the realm of the "squeaky wheel gets the
grease," I would like to add a few random
thoughts to hopefully roll all involved
within spitting distance of commonsense
and the oft invoked and much abused
Constitution. ( You remember, that simple
document containing such incendiary con
cepts as the Bill of Rights?)
Let's review the situation: in the
hopes of bringing a little fun to lighten the
winter doldrums, the SGA arranged an
event involving free food, a palm reader, a
tarot card reader and a caricaturist. The
presence of the palm reader and the Tarot
card reader so offended the on-campus
Christian that they wrote a letter of com
plaint to the SGA. The SGA promptly
apologized for the offense.
First of all, the abovementioned read
ers were preSent on campus, not at Satan's
behest, but as entertainers. As a bona fide
card carrying reader myself, I can assure
you that these readers are very clear on
their role in such an event and only wish to
provide an interesting and different insight
to those who sit down for a reading.
Readers in this situation do not purport to
be divine, guides to ultimate enlighten
ment or even always right. They do try to
be friendly, positive and, in keeping with
the job description entertaining.
Secondly, despite the offense taken by
the complainant, I seem to have missed the
lasso and restraints dragging unwitting and
unwilling members of the community into
the presence of these readers. The students
who sat down for readings did so for a
variety of reasons—curiousity, thrills, an
extra ten minutes—but not one was
chained to the chair and forced to hear a
reading. It would be nigh unto impossible
to have one's palm read in this fashion,
wouldn't it?
No one was carried in kicking and
screaming but rather, it was a voluntary act
chosen through the free will of all
involved
Thirdly, for the Student Government
Association to actually apologize for pro
viding an on campus entertainment is sim
ply ludicrous. Like the thought police who
would dumb down and sanitize all events
to the level of a Disney cartoon, the letter
writer ignored the simplest of answers—
Don't go. Do not attend. Do not have your
cards or palm read. Just simply live your
life without this form of entertainment and
let others enjoy what entertainment that
they choose. Or was the lure of that free
dish of ice cream just too much to resist?
For such a complaint to be dignified
with a response from an organization that
is designed to represent all the students on
campus, is disappointing and dishearten
ing. It seems that views of the few are hon
ored to the exclusion of the mainstream. It
taints what was a fun event with the threat
ening clouds of censorship from an
extreme individual. Not all Christians dis
avow or censure psychic readers. There
may be members of certain
Fundamentalist cults that take this form of
entertainment as too serious a threat to
their translation of the Will of God. But
not all, or even most, Christians hold their
belief system as a way to blackmail any
other group into following their path.
Validating this complaint is offensive and
unfair to all those who truly do attempt to
honor and respect the belief systems of all
their fellow students.
Respectfully yours,
Diane McDonough
Literature Major
NEW STAFF
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