Letters

Letters`Pro-choice’ Christian

Editor:I am a Christian. I am involved with Campus Crusade for
Christ. I am

disappointed, but not surprised, at the standard antagonistic
rhetoric that

has surfaced recently from the ads we placed in The Bruin during
Coming Out

Week.

I give Jonathan Petersen credit for his proactive and
passionate

response last Monday ("Do unto others … ," Oct. 16). However,
I’m

concerned that if people only read his heated generalizations
without

seeing the ad, they could very well conceive the ad to have been
a vicious

portrayal of "homophobic Christians" lynching and condemning
"gays and

lesbians."

In reality, the ads were personal accounts of two different
people whose

newfound relationship with the historic person of Jesus Christ
compelled

them to evaluate every area of their lives. Their response to
Him included

the difficult choice to exit a lifestyle and an identity, and
they found

God’s plans for them to be both freeing and satisfying. These
ads were

simply their stories – their choice, though originally both
would admit

they didn’t "choose" the feelings and passions they struggled
with.

Once again, Coming Out Week seems to have fostered a
polarizing

environment pitting the "right-wing, homophobic, intolerant,
nut-case

Christians" against the "outspoken and embittered" homosexual
who has "come

out." Perhaps each is forgetting, ignoring or both, that the
majority of

people struggling with sexuality (including Christians) fall in
between

these two polarized circles; they just don’t make as
hair-raising a story

on TV or in the newspaper.

I’m proud of the high caliber and diverse group of students here
at

UCLA. I hope we will soon make respectful and respectable
strides in rising

above the typical and expected generalizations, stereotypes,
assumptions

and presumptions that have historically characterized this
issue.Sarah Romero

Third-year

PhilosophyCheck Yourself

Editor:I would like to respond to Cliff Jin’s letter to the
editor ("Third

party of Westwood," Oct. 20). I am not going to clown Jin for
taking a

stand contrary to mine. I am going to clown him for the fact
that he

completely contradicted himself. It is hypocritical to begin the
letter

saying "the extreme always has an effect," and then turn around
and whine

because your friend can’t get to the Westside Pavilion to buy a
birthday

present due to the "civil unrest."

We wanted to, we needed to interrupt the lives of the third
party of

Westwood because the issue was not only about affirmative action
on UC

campuses, but also about the California Civil Rights Initiative
(which, by

the way, affects that "innocent" third party – including
Jin).

Think about tenureships, board of executives in corporate
Amerikkka,

equal opportunity employers. Maybe if Jin actually gave a damn,
like he

began to say he did, and attended one of the informational
programs put on

during the 12 days of education, he might have known this. Ergo,
check

yourself, Jin, before you say that we were rallying for
something that "may

never even affect (us)," because it will affect us and you.

Like I said in the beginning, I am not going to clown Jin for
his stand

contrary to mine. But, I am going to clown him for his
ignorance. "What

ever happened to basing hiring and admissions on merit," you
want to know?

It still exists. In fact, this may surprise you, but those
students who

were admitted as a result of affirmative action still met the
requirements

needed to be accepted into the UC system. They were not admitted
solely

because of their "biological background."Like you and me, they
took the

SAT. They had higher than a 3.0 GPA (who knew?). In fact, 99.3
percent of

everyone admitted in the UC system meets the admissions
requirements. It is

this ignorance that kills me. The fact that people bitch, whine,
cry and

complain about things when they don’t even know the honest
FACTS.

Jin, there is no innocent third party, because that innocent
third party

helps decide the fate of our country when it goes to the polls.
Yes, we are

going to be able to have a "lasting effect on people who are
important and

relevant to the issues we are fighting for." But only if we
don’t sit on

our asses and get up and actually fight.

Think about the Civil Rights Movement which started in 1954
and

continued through the 1960s. Do you think they gave a fuck as to
whether or

not Jimbo could go buy bread at Trader Joe’s when they had their
rallies

and demonstrations? I could just see it now. Wouldn’t it be
lovely if

Martin Luther King Jr. didn’t boycott the bus system because
those innocent

white people needed their "normal day shopping, eating out,
running

errands, meeting clients, going to appointments." How dare he
interrupt

their innocent lives!

As a woman of colour and an activist, I couldn’t sit in class
and be

"considerate" to the innocent third party. My children, their
children and

I will be directly affected by the abolition of affirmative
action and the

consequences if CCRI passes. So, I bothered people. But I’ll be
damned if

I’m going to take a moment and think about the third party. Did
the

majority of the third party think about me?

The regents and anti-affirmative action supporters aren’t
laughing

anymore; 3000 students, faculty members, union workers and
citizens made

sure of that.Mellanie-Dawn Ramsey

Fourth-year

History with education specialization