LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Last week, I was walking back from class when I noticed an unusually large and wild crowd forming at the fountain. Within a few moments, I realized exactly what I was seeing and hearing: a very radical and conservative Christian. His message was obviously affecting this crowd as their passion or, as some may suggest, insecurity was overflowing and causing erratic behavior that insults our generation as young Americans.

For people who did not witness this hard-to-miss spectacle of obnoxious comments and disappointing behavior, several individuals from a Pentecostal church came to campus suggesting that anyone who drinks alcohol, uses any drugs, performs any sexual act before marriage, or just about tries to do anything that goes against the laws of mankind is forever condemned to hell. Instead of throwing my personal opinion in on religion, peace, being a good citizen, etc., I would rather focus on my reaction to this fiasco as a whole.

For about 30 minutes, I stood in disgust watching students of our university as they used just about any vulgar act imaginable to prove that they were right and the religious man in the center of the fountain was wrong. I even heard some guy say "I don't care if they think I'm an idiot or not; I feel the need to express my opinion in any way I can!" (that was paraphrased, of course). I'll go ahead and say what most people were thinking: if you encouraged that passionate religious crusader at the fountain, you're just as guilty promoting a major social problem as he is. I talked to a very bright freshman girl while this event was occurring, and she was pointing out the exact thoughts that were popping up in my head. Intelligent, savvy and articulate students do not react to people like the fountain guy by shooting off "f*ck you"s and using bananas in sexually explicit ways. One guy even said "let's keep idiots like this out of the White House by voting for Obama!" If I were Sen. Obama, I would be absolutely ashamed of the generation that is apparently going to rise above all the hatred in politics and work together to create a brighter world.

While I disagreed with just about everything the fountain man had to say, I was astonished to hear this one guy disagree with Mr. Jesus Man (laugh, it's supposed to be funny) when he said that before one marries, he or she should have total faith in his or her partner that he or she will never commit adultery. Is that really such a radical notion to try and live by?

I suppose the point I am attempting to establish here is that most of the people who stood by and witnessed this display of shenanigans were normal, rational students who were getting quite the chuckle out of watching everything unfold; the question, however, is who were we laughing at more: the man who was preaching that we are all going to hell, or the loony people who played along and perpetuated a false image that our generation is nothing but loud, angry hooligans?

Michael Cook Junior Political Science