Wednesday, April 11,1990
Letter to the Editor:
Curses cause continued controversy
Dear Editor,
I must express my agreement
with Mr. Banker's letter in the
April 4 issue. I think such use
of profanities has no place in any
legitimate newspaper. Even an
April Fool's edition is no excuse
for such abandonment of good
taste.
You argue that you don't want
to "talk down" to readers that use
such language. I realize that you
want to reach a broad audience,
but I believe you've gone too far
- in your attempt to reach those
readers, you have offended those
of us who do not care for obscene
Prindle responds to letter writer
Dear Maria,
Thank you for your letter. We appreciate your input. You, being a former
Collegian news editor, know the pressure involved in making editorial decisions
that might cause controversy.
You say that we offended people through our use of crude language. True. At
least two people were offended enough to take the time to express their opinions
and I am sure that the letters in question will play heavily in our next decision
regarding questionable material.
Taste is in the eyes of the beholder, or in this case, the eyes of the editors.
People, if offended by our taste, can stop reading The Collegian. We do not want
this to happen but it is your freedom.
You point out that profanity is still profanity, but is that necessarily true? We
have all been beaten over the head with stories of something that was considered
obscene now being perfectly all right
People have been stoned for saying Jehovah, women have been shunned for
being pregnant but unmarried. As children, some of us were not allowed to say
"crap."
The word profane means showing contempt or irreverence toward God. We
have no grudge against any god, much less God, so we did not intend profanity.
language.
You also assert that the use of
two such words out of several
thousand isn't so bad. Perhaps
that is true, but just one fly will
ruin a whole bowl of soup.
Those vulgarities had a similar
effect on my taste for The
Collegian.
You ended your response by
expressing a hope (obviously
you're not sure yourself why the
words were used) that the words
were chosen for an "ironically
critical reason." No matter what
fancy excuse you have for it,
profanity is still profanity.
Finally, your own letter
"ITS WV HI6 POSTAL SfcKViefc....''
policy states that The Collegian
reserves the right to reject letters
that do not conform to the
standards of good taste. Is this a
double standard - applying only
to letter writers and not the
Collegian staff? Or are your
standards so low as to consider
such language good taste?
I have come to expect more
from The Collegian and hope that
in the future it will depend on
good writing, not crude language,
for its appeal.
Rob Prindle
OpTEd. Page Editor
fell!
WMr^
The Collegian
Maria Plaza
Fourth semester
Physical Therapy
On the right track
Spanos on
brotherly love
by Christine Spanos
Last Wednesday, I attended an informal lecture regarding
Diversity and Race Relations. The lecture, headed by Andrew Festa,
focused on the "labels" that are given to certain people because of
their skin color, religion, or whatever. I must give Festa some
credit; he made me think twice about my own beliefs. Don't get
excited, I still think the way I always have, but he helped to shed
light on yet another area of "labeling".
I realized this when I had a rather heated discussion with a
"friend" of mine. (I put friend in quotes to indicate a change in the
terms of our relationship not to indicate an imaginary person. Trust
me, this person is real). We were discussing the fratemity/sorority
scene at Behrend. Although the discussion basically focused on the
fraternities at Behrend, I'm going to include the sororities as well. I
suppose I should mention the fact that I am not involved with any
sorority so my view isn't biased in that way.
The argument went something
like this. "Those lerches walk
around wearing their letters,
thinking they're too good to
speak to anyone who isn't a
member of their fraternity. They
come to school with no social
lives, join a fraternity (or
sorority) and Presto! Instant
friends. There are only a handful
of guys in fraternities that I can
deal with and those are the ones
who don't wear the letters on a
daily basis. Just once. I'd like
t 0...."
I think my "friend" woke up
on the wrong side of the bed that
day but through conversations
with other people, I've become
aware that this view is not so
uncommon. Well, I'm going to
do my best to defend the
fraternities and sororities at
Behrend because I don't think
they're all that bad.
First of all, fraternities and sororities are not for everyone, but
for the people who pledge them and eventually become brothers or
sisters, the institution itself must become rather important to them.
These people go through a lot of work to become a part of the
organization they pledged. You can bet that I would wear the letters
of a sorority I pledged for a whole semester.
These people aren't being "lerches” by wearing their letters. In
my opinion, they're simply showing the pride they must feel for
their fraternity or sorority. I guess this explains why all the baseball
players, softball players and basketball players wear their jackets
around school. They're proud to be part of their organizations.
As for joining a fraternity or sorority just to gain friends, I'm
going to have to say that's a little off the mark. One fraternity
member that I know quite well said he joined his fraternity not only
to expand his group of friends to include the brothers of that
fraternity, but to adopt the beliefs and traditions that are the basis of
that fraternity. As far as I understand, each fraternity and sorority has
a constitution which offers a way of life for the members of each
organization. Obviously, the members of fraternities and sororities
agree with, and find comfort with, that constitution. Sure they gain
more friends, but that's the key phrase - more friends.
Getting back to Andrew Festa and the labeling thing, I've
witnessed a perfect example of "labeling" by listening to my
"friend" speak about fraternities. He has no idea what 95% of
fraternity members are like, how they think, what they feel, yet he
feels he knows them enough to label them "lerches". Far be it for
me to stand in the way of someone's opinion but to be honest, his
argument is lame.
Page
Christine Spanos