It’s sad to see the political rage so rampant in our country has now affected some of our high schools. Not even there, it seems, can two opposing sides express their views without resorting to threats and violence.

Right here in Illinois, at Chicago-area Homewood-Flossmoor High School, one of the most heated topics affecting our culture was played out Tuesday on the backs of hundreds of students.

About 200 students took up a T-shirt rally to promote gay rights awareness issues and tolerance. The Chicago Tribune reports the shirts worn by the students said, simply, “Gay? Fine by me.”

As they do across the country, those supporting gay rights awareness faced opposition from some Christian groups, who chose on Tuesday to promote awareness of their own issues. One of these issues is, in the words of Jacques Jacobs, a youth minister at Family Harvest Church, their “right to believe in their values has become an offense to many people.”

Predictably (in a sad sort of way), the T-shirt rally produced name-calling and a few fights. That’s right. We’re at the point where wearing the wrong T-shirt (whether it supports gay rights or religious ones) can get you into a fight.

In part, the students are only emulating what they see on television, and better role models there might help. Thanks in large part to cable news networks, our airwaves are filled with confrontational shouting-head shows that address issues by picking sides as though they were sports teams, and encouraging their audiences to do the same. And the behavior of many of our politicians has only compounded this.

Don’t forget, it was only a few months ago that Senator Zell Miller of Georgia, after delivering a ranting speech at the Republican National Convention, blustered away at the host of a cable talk show, challenging him to a duel. Or that protesters threw pies and salad dressing at conservatives Ann Coulter and Pat Buchanan as they gave speeches.

You can see this poisonous behavior at its sharpest in some of Republican House Majority Leader Tom DeLay’s recent comments. This weekend, DeLay used violent rhetoric when he spoke at a National Rifle Association banquet in Houston, Texas. While hundreds gathered outside to protest DeLay and the corruption allegations surrounding him, Delay told his audience, “when a man is in trouble or in a good fight, you want to have your friends around, preferably armed.”

Earlier this year, when he disagreed with the ruling of federal judges in the Terri Schiavo case, DeLay issued the ominous threat that “the time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior.” At a time when the family of a federal Chicago judge had just been killed, DeLay’s comments were highly inappropriate.

American politics, unfortunately, has a history of this uncivil tone in its discourse. Just 10 years ago, then-Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina went so far as to threaten the president, saying, “Mr. Clinton better watch out if he comes down here. He’d better have a bodyguard.”

It’s discouraging to see the bad behavior we expect from politicians played out by high school students. High school is hard enough without it.

Columns reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily that of the Northern Star staff.