Is it not the year 2006? People’s actions sometimes, however, make it difficult for me to differentiate between the present day and 1956. In the past 50 years have we really accomplished anything? Yes, African Americans are now allowed to vote. They can also sit anywhere on a bus that they want, and can drink out of any water fountain they want. However, to say that racism, sexism and homophobia, among other forms of discrimination do not still exist, is merely wishful thinking.On our very own campus this past week we had people protesting both homosexuality and abortion. Essentially, we had two protests telling people they are sinners and going to hell. Granted I was out of town this past week during these protests, however, no one informed me that God or any other greater power was here handing out Hell passes.
I am not going to sit here and pretend that I am the least bit conservative, because I am not. In fact, I am quite liberal. However, the thing I do not understand about these protestors, or any other protestors, is where they get off telling people that they are wrong in their choices. As far as I know you are no better than me, or anyone else, with no higher power than any other person walking around you. So where exactly do you get off telling me, other homosexuals, and women that our choices as other human beings are more or less sinful than yours. You spend Sunday mornings sitting in a pew and read passages from a book, and as a result you feel like you are better than others. How exactly do you come to this conclusion?
I never have, and probably never will understand these judgments of others. How do issues of sexuality and personal choice possibly involve outsiders? As for homosexuality, no one is forcing you to partake in any activities, so how does it possibly affect you? Homosexuals are not worried about what heterosexuals are doing behind closed doors, so why is the opposite occurring? Secondly, unless you are willing to adopt the children of women who feel the need, for whatever reason, to get an abortion, how can you possibly be allowed to have an opinion?
Do human beings not deserve to be loved? Do humans not deserve to right to feel comfortable with who they are? Do humans not deserve the right to choose what is right for them? Or should the government, or should I say the church, have the right to set out our limits to personal choice?
“Legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between Church and State…”
R. Brandyn Miller is a junior at West Chester University majoring in literature.