Butch Barker: For crying out loud, act your age

by BUTCH BARKER
editor

Act your age not your shoe size.

I know you are but what am I.

Yeah, those are childish comebacks, but with what I'm about to vent about, those kindergarten slurs are fitting.

Monday was an observant day for me. My eyes were wider and I remembered just about everything I encountered. In other words, it would have been a good study day, had I decided to study.

Instead, I spent the day reading bathroom walls and fliers hung throughout campus. My interest was sparked when I was reading the inside of a men's bathroom stall in Smith Hall. Believe me, that's not a habit ­ you have to look somewhere ...

Anyway, I read everything from call "696-XXXX for a good time ..." to a certain fraternity on campus "sucks." You and I both could argue that's First Amendment rights, but hopefully we wouldn't get too far.

What I saw hanging near the three elevators on the first floor of Smith Hall made that last line even more strong. Members of a homosexual fraternity were exercising their right to advertise and some really childish person or persons decided to violate a few rules in the Marshall University Handbook'sCode of Conduct.

The flier was grafittied with names and phrases built from hate and ignorance. I wouldn't accomplish anything by giving examples of the insults, so I will not.

Just know that it's hard for me to believe some college student(s) had the ignorance to participate in an act that could easily be regarded as a hate crime. It amazes me that everyone still has to fight for acceptance. How many times do we have to say "no one is perfect." Talk about beating a dead horse.

I know it's impossible for me to touch the world, but if just one person reads this and realizes poking fun at someone or something they don't believe in does not make them a better person, then I've done my job for the day. Even though I'd like to do more, I have to accept this column as my best effort.

Believe me, I'd love to show the ignorant people of the world just how ignorant they are. I'd like to make them show up at a meeting naked or have their hair fall out before an important event. But neither of those are possible. I can spend my days as an activist against all types of inequality and I can gripe about those who do not. Those are my rights.

We all have rights but tones change when you infringe on someone else's. Keep your beliefs, even the ones I find ignorant. You don't have to change. Just help others know they don't as well by keeping your ignorant beliefs to yourself.

Butch Barker is editor of The Parthenon and gets fired up from time to time. Comments can be directed to him at barker14@marshall.edu.