The last line of Alex Rodeck and friends’ letter certainly got attention, just as intended. I probably would have been as outraged as those who responded — if I were still the young, naive, liberal-minded student who thought I could solve the world’s problems as I was when I attended Iowa State from 1976-1979.

I read the Daily every morning on-line, and it saddens me that a great deal of what’s written IS trite, party-line liberalism in a state where conservative, God-fearing values are what made Iowa a stable, attractive place to live.

It disturbs me that alternative lifestyles are accepted as the norm, and the paper seems obsessed with hitting its readers over the head constantly with these lifestyles, sarcastically berating anyone who dares to object as conservative Bible-thumpers, as though these were dirty words.

Why is it acceptable to attack heterosexual, conservative, Christian lifestyles with venomous words while whimpering “bias,” “bigotry” and “homophobia” if someone challenges your beliefs? Perhaps you missed the whole point of the letter — a lack of coverage of something other than “coming out” issues — because you concentrated on the word “fag.”

To many of you, the word is a red flag like “nigger” or “honkey.” To many of us, the words “Bible thumper,” “homophobe” or “redneck” raise those same flags. But you don’t mind using them, do you?

Perhaps it’s time for the Daily to move on to more important issues than sexual orientation. It’s convenient to grab onto sexual rights because it’s a current popular topic and it raises controversy.

Maybe you have to wait until you get to my age to realize that sexual preferences are small potatoes compared to the bigger picture that we experience once that idyllic college journey ends and we move on to real life.

If you want controversy, why not concentrate on date rape, abuse of life partners and children, alcohol abuse, the encroachment of our farmland, the cost of education, the homeless, terrorism, the degradation of family values … the list is endless.

The world is beating everyone up out there, not just gays, but women, men, all ethnicities and races and persuasions. Challenge yourselves to cover other issues, objectively.

Based upon the Daily’s coverage, dissension appears to be everywhere on campus, antagonistic multi-culturalism rather than that wonderful melting pot of society that I experienced in the ’70s. The paper’s catering to certain groups only fuels this antagonism.

Am I a conservative, Bible-thumping holier-than-thou sexual prude who closes her eyes to the needs and opinions of others, gay or otherwise?

Hardly. Raised in an atheistic, bigoted, socialist family, I accepted Christ one night in a hallway of Helser; I vote my conscience, not a political party; I help raise awareness of our local AIDS hospice through our church; I reared my sons to stand up and be vocal for what they believe, even if it goes against the politically-correct tide; I suffered severe physical and emotional abuse; I experimented with marijuana and Southern Comfort in the dorms; I understand the term “bunk races,” and I conceived my first-born son in a Spinney dorm room 20 years ago (so I guess you can say he returned to the nest).

No goody-two-shoes here. Do I believe that gays and lesbians can make a choice? Absolutely.

Just as an alcoholic or a diabetic who has been “born that way” can make health decisions either beneficial or harmful to their lives, homosexuals “born that way” can choose a path of abstention. I know: I am a bisexual woman who chose to marry men because I loved them, and because it was conducive to my spiritual life to follow my Christian beliefs about homosexuality.

I will always be bisexual — I choose not to practice my bisexuality. I have no guilt, no conflicting inner feelings, no hatred toward those who choose to remain gay.

My sons call me a dyke just to needle me, but I don’t take offense because I spent my life being called “that bleeding heart liberal nigger-lover” by my own siblings, so I became inured to names.

I simply have more important issues upon which to concentrate than my sexual orientation. Perhaps the Daily can find some other issues upon which to focus and break out of your reporting rut.

By the way…I’m also Alex Rodeck’s mom, and he loves redneck jokes, but not goats or sheep.

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Janice Hastillo Brown

Alumna

Porterville, Calif.