'Ridiculing others' hardly funny, comic needs to stop

I strongly feel that Arnie Bermudez's "Sarape's Grill" is a perfect example of inappropriate humor. Any humor that is exclusive, separates people, puts someone down or ridicules others, destroys self-esteem, uses stereotypes of groups, encourages a negative atmosphere, offends others or lacks awareness of others' feelings is inappropriate. This is a diverse campus and many international students have an accent, which doesn't mean that they are less capable in communicating with people. Making fun of their accent in the campus newspaper is not valid. The Wildcat should stop printing it.

Prashant Raj
engineering management junior

Letter demonstrates lack of tolerance, logic toward gays

Gonzalo Martinez Celaya's letter demonstrates the existence of closed-minded individuals that all groups should fight against. Celaya dissects Wingert's argument and provides no evidence to support his claims. Celaya claims that common traits exist in the upbringing of many homosexuals, such as dysfunctional relationships with their fathers. What is the causation? Do dysfunctional father relationships cause homosexuality or does homosexuality cause dysfunctional relationships? I'm sure we all could find cases supporting and refuting both sides.

Celaya further goes on and discusses the "pro-gay" media's inaccurate reporting of the Catholic Church scandal. All of the news I have seen and read on the matter depicted that most, if not all, of priestly sexual misconduct has been between two men.

What does serial killers' possible acts of sodomy have to do with gay people? Celaya introduces this connection to associate homosexuals with evil people. Many criminals smoke cigarettes; are all cigarette smokers criminals?

Celaya argues that homosexuals choose to be homosexuals; God did not make them that way. At any rate, we as citizens of this planet should learn to be tolerant of others' natural traits or choices of how to live their life. As college students, we should be able to dissect arguments and find the underlying meaning and bias. Celaya uses facts and concepts that are loosely tied to the issue at hand and tries to connect them to make an argument. He has an obvious bias against homosexuality and his letter shows that. I too have a bias, toward equal rights for all people, homosexuals included.

Brittain Hastings
accounting and economics senior

Christians are tolerant of other people's way of life

It is letters like that of Gonzalo Celaya that, as a Christian, both sadden and anger me. I do not agree with homosexual practice. I believe the Bible is clear about it not being acceptable among those who call themselves Christians. However, that will never cause me to accuse those who are homosexual of having murderous tendencies, as Celaya did, and it will never stop me from befriending and loving them. We are all people, regardless of sexual orientation, who deserve to be loved and treated with respect, and more importantly, need Jesus Christ. That was the message of Tim Wilkins last week, and it is the message of the vast majority of Christians on this campus. It is people like Celaya that perpetuate the stereotype that Christians are bigoted, hateful people, when that is simply not true (see 1 John 4:7-12). I have been friends with Chris Wingert for many years, and that friendship is based on who he is, a great person, not his sexual orientation. Given what I read from Celaya, I think I would rather be friends with Chris than with him.

Benjamin Notheis
electrical engineering senior

Let's destroy books along with all that pornography

This letter is in regard to Park Romney's letter about the enforcement of pornography. What a genius. Park, when we are done checking everyone's computers for pornography, would you like to go to the library with me and burn books? Chaucer and Balzac sure are offensive to me, and I think they are destructive too.

Jakob Schanzer
chemistry senior

Christians should follow teachings of Jesus Christ

In response to Mr. Gonzalo Martinez Celaya, who opts not to believe in such a heresy as a gay Christian, I would just like to say that I do not believe in such a heresy as a person who calls himself a Christian yet clearly does not follow the teachings and examples of Jesus Christ. The devout Christian that you are, Mr. Celaya, you should know this: "Judge not, lest ye be judged" (Matthew 7:1).

Lindsay Bohl
music performance and education
senior

Everyone was persecuted at one time, regardless of race

It's unfortunate that gross stereotypes such as those displayed by Cathy Busha still exist today. It should be evident that a person's skin color speaks little of that person; a person's culture, religious beliefs, economic status, home conditions and other elements are more appropriate indicators of who that person is and the life he/she has lived. I would like to see Busha explain to a young Caucasian boy who grew up in an abusive home that life isn't all that bad, because he was dealt a "hand of aces." Or try explaining the benefits of being white to a Caucasian girl who grew up on welfare and food stamps. I'm sure she'll understand that she is actually the "face of oppression" and needs to give up her power and domination. What solace she is bound to feel. When it comes to a person's race, there are only generalizations and assumptions and far too many exceptions to base final decisions.

It's ironic that Busha mentions how burdensome it is for one to wonder if coworkers suspect his or her qualifications as rooted in race. This is not a product of years of white domination, but the natural result of current social engineering, and we must be accustomed to it if we are to live in our "affirmative action" world. Our society is obsessed with race and will continue to be obsessed while this sort of engineering continues.

I challenge you to find one person that associates himself with a group that has not at some time been persecuted, hated or oppressed ÷ be it racial, religious, political or any other type of affiliation. Is being hated because you have African ancestors any worse than being hated because you're Muslim, or Irish or a part of any other group that has been persecuted? History has passed. It can be learned from or it can be ignored. It cannot, however, be changed. So while Busha runs around handing out her aces to the "underprivileged races," whatever that means, I urge the more intelligent of you to look at those who show true signs of misfortune, regardless of their color, and do the humane thing to lift those people up.

Joseph Scott
mathematics senior

Community must realize students live in Tucson too

This semester, there is more debate about the police than there has been any other semester that I've been at the university. The police have taken their actions against parties to the next, and absurd, level. I read the numerous letters written by faculty and alumni on how college kids aren't responsible enough to party and need to be controlled. One faculty member actually compared underage drinkers to murderers! I must have missed the point when we got out of control. This school has officially become a joke to me. I have had four older siblings attend colleges throughout the country and I've never seen such ridiculous measures against drinking. At the University of Iowa, the police stand outside the bars to make sure everyone is safe, not to card anyone that they don't think looks old enough. At the University of Western Michigan, the police spend most of their efforts to prevent auto thefts, rapes and other real crimes. At Western Illinois, the police actually offer rides home to students who ask/need them. These are things the police should concentrate their efforts and money on. This is a college town. People are going to drink and weekends will be loud. All the "adults" around the campus need to come to grips with that. They need to take a different viewpoint of the so-called problem. Instead of looking at us as immature college children they need to look at us as the 38,000 people who keep this town running by paying outrageous tuition fees for a very subpar education. The amount of jobs the college provides here exceeds any other business in the town, with the possible exception of Davis-Monthan. This town would be completely useless without this university, and this university would be completely useless without the students. I've said it before and I'll say it again: If you take this university away from this town there would be no airport ÷ look at that, more job loss; if you take the university and the high crime rate away from this town there isn't even news coverage.

Ryan Poirier
economics and political science junior

Need scientific studies to back up Îgay nationality'

I'd like to respond briefly to the letter written by Jonna Lopez on Oct. 14 regarding "hate rhetoric." Because an invited speaker was offering an alternative to the gay lifestyle ÷ based on his own experience ÷ she labels him a hate monger and calls his personal story "hate rhetoric." She further makes an analogy between his story and that of someone offering a way out of Judaism or the "sinful" (her term) Hispanic lifestyle.

She creates the comparison of racial and national identity to the homosexual lifestyle. Since, by definition, a person is born into a race or nationality because of parental race or nationality, I'm assuming that she believes that all homosexuals have one or more homosexual parents.

I'd like to know the scientific studies that support her assertion ÷ or perhaps one or both of her own parents are gay, thus giving her a "gay nationality." And since homosexuality involves an aversion to sex with the opposite gender, I'm assuming Ms. Lopez is adopted ÷ or perhaps the second immaculate conception in history.

Labels, false assertions and suppression of alternative views are apparently the new tools of debate on America's college campuses.

Michael Wade
Greensboro, NC