The success of any idea depends on its usefulness. Steve Erickson, history chairman of the Campus Republicans would have us believe the “left” stands for contradictory ideals.

The goal is not to eliminate racism; it’s to open minds to multiculturalism. The most important thing is not what you believe but how you believe it. Thinking in two-dimensional terms is dangerous and foolish. Success is not a destination, it is a journey.

Steve, your whole argument goes against what you’re trying to accomplish. You say certain people are hell-bent on retaining power, then group them ambiguously as “the left.” You use words like Liberal Establishment, Radical and Racist.

How can you argue for the elimination of categorization when you use divisions to describe your adversaries? Who are these “left” people?

The idea of this campus having a liberal chokehold on multicultural matters is absurd.

Republicans are obsessed with proving their moral superiority over other groups. Unfortunately, they’ve bounced many moral checks recently. Bob Barr, Trent Lott and Henry Hyde are prime examples of your party’s morality. Their idea: spend millions to make America a laughing stock and prove our commander-in-chief is unfaithful. What difference does it make?

What if I refused to look at Picasso’s paintings because he fooled around on his wife? What if I said Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture was unsatisfactory because he was a cheat and a liar?

These men’s legacies live on because we focus on their accomplishments, not mundane details. Their contributions outweighed the bad they did. Where is the voice of reason in today’s society? Where are the people with foresight to tell us the error of our ways today so we may prevent the disasters of tomorrow?

Culture wars are won through passive resistance. It is simple psychopathology. Think of it this way: Your mom angrily tells you to clean your room. You do it because you’re afraid of the consequences. She will punish you if you don’t. Fear acts on you. Fear leads to hate.

When you hate, you focus narrowly on anger and hold it so tightly you forget what made you hate.

There’s no intelligent resolve. But if your mom comes in and gives you a choice, you’ll be more willing to accept the idea with the knowledge you had ownership in it.

You lose the hate and feel understanding and curiosity courting rational thought. Name-calling doesn’t fix anything, Mr. Republican History Chair. Left, Right, Black, White, Republican or Democrat. The way to stop racism is to stop forcing ideology on people.

Give people partial ownership in their ideas. Give people a chance to make decisions about their affiliations. Stop placing blame and start understanding each other! It seems so simple. Republicans don’t know any better than Democrats, Christians are no more enlightened than non-Christians; the list goes on.

The most insulting part is where you say, “his loyalty to God and country cannot be judged by any human standards.” This is the worst kind of political transfer, and you should be ashamed of yourself for using it.

Republicans always hide behind faith as a safety net for loopholes in logic. Manipulating faith to herd people behind your point simply because you’ve mentioned that God supports a unrelated issue is totalitarian and absolutist.

I am afraid of demagogues using scare tactics to force people to choose sides. People who consider singing an African-American National Anthem a threat. Singing such a song is a proud celebration of our ethnicity and speaks to the very freedom we fought for and continue to fight for to this day. To treat this as a betrayal directly contradicts the First Amendment. We are the land of the free. Justice Scalia would agree with me on that point. Free for everyone, no matter what version of freedom you believe in. I don’t consider myself a leftist, Mr. Erickson, I consider myself an American. American is not a race; it is a way of life, an idea, a feeling, a vigorous inner-strength that comes from a mixed heritage.

I am more interested in exploring the past and making a better future than putting myself into a narrow category religiously, spiritually or ideologically.

I believe in America, Mr. Erickson. I believe in freedom. Categories limit this freedom.

The first step is to stop this ridiculous “Culture War” you spoke of. Wars of this type solve nothing and prove less. Your “morality as a means” is tiresome and Machiavellian.

You can argue as much as you want, but at the end of the day you still have to clean your room. The difference is how you choose to do it. Again, Mr. Erickson, not what you believe, but how you believe it.

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Joseph R. Benesh

Senior

Architecture