I am writing in response to a letter which appeared in The Northern Star on Sept. 11 from Scott Stocking, a “campus minister”.

Frankly, I was enraged when I read this man’s comments. First of all, one cannot boil morality and ethics into simple left and right categories in which the right is populated by the god-fearing “conservatives” and the left by godless bleeding-heart “liberals.”

An absolutist view such as this is nothing short of ignorant. It is ridiculous to suggest that anybody can judge someone’s sexual preference on the moral “right” and the “vile” homosexuals on the “left.”

I am heterosexual, but I am sick and tired of closed-minded religious freaks trying to force their ideals on the rest of community. If you pretend that there are no gay people, Mr. Stocking, that does not mean they will cease to exist.

You have no choice in this country of personal freedom, but to accept gay people as they are. Neither you or the ROTC has the right to deny them their rights as citizens of this nation.

Mr. Stocking even suggested that because “conservative” views of morality have supposedly been around longer than views from the so-called “left,” this somehow gives the conservative view greater validity.

Mr. Stocking, wake up! Homosexuality has been around longer than your conservative view on morality and ethics, and will stand when your useless, elitist attitudes have long vanishied.

No one is foisting any morality or lack thereof on Mr. Stocking. All that gays are demanding and deserve are the same rights that every heterosexual possesses.

Nobody is suggesting there is a disintegration of the social order through “absolute freedom,” as Mr. Stocking suggests. Homosexuality does not represent a step toward any “absolute freedom;” rather it is merely a personal preference.

It is a choice that is the individual’s, not a choice that is the business of Mr. Stocking or the ROTC.

I suggest the ROTC and Mr. Stocking keep their noses where they belong. I happen to find behavior such as Mr. Stocking’s vile. “Moral Defense?” Don’t be ridiculous!

Paul M. Stout

Junior

Education