Ward wasting education by stereotyping

I wish I was convinced that Jon Ward's column of Sept. 17 ("The smarter animal") was at least in the same sarcastic spirit as Olson's recent controversial cartoon. But apparently Ward has not taken anything to heart about respect, sensitivity or humility. It seems that in his righteous vegetarian fury he has expressed typical middle-class contempt for people who have to work with their hands for a living and might not wear clothes from The Gap or spend enough time on the stairmaster.

If you go around calling people "toothless trailer trash" and "big sweaty imbeciles" (not to their face, you can bet!), and generally acting superior, small wonder that they reciprocate your disgust and reject all your liberal PC causes to boot.

I agree with Ward that humans should stop lording it over creation. But he should realize that people with lots of money and power do much more to destroy the ecosystem and other species than do poor people, and are the deserving targets of collective action.

An education is a terrible thing to waste promoting ignorant stereotypes.

Richard Hutchinson

Graduate Instructor of Sociology