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 The incident involving the HIV/AIDS speaker whispers of a problem more deeply rooted than what is obvious. It is beyond an apparent administrative mistake, it is beyond some unclear district policy. It is a crude idea so firmly imbedded in this community it is at times accepted without so much as a whimper. We are intolerant. Not only in regards to sexual orientation, but to race, spirituality, etc. We are a coldly ignorant community that continues to allow barbaric ideas long abandoned by the progressive world to taint our thoughts and our actions.
The school district and all its endeavors are constrained (and apparently unjustly so) by the thoughts and attitudes of the community it is a part of. So why would such a policy exist, why would the administration respond in such a manner? Let me take a wild stab in the dark. Here's the scenario: Little Billy comes home from school one day and informs his mommy that a homosexual person spoke to his class. His mother erupts into a hatred induced rage, veracious veins exploding everywhere, and she calls the school condemning them as messengers of Lucifer who have poisoned Billy's perfect little soul with some ungodly propaganda. And then she contacts her fellow members of the UCMIA (Ultra-Conservative Mothers for an Ignorant America) and urges them to do the same. Whoops! We wouldn't want our children to be aware of what the outside world holds, now would we? No,no,no. We would rather have them stupid and afraid when confronted with something they aren't used to.
When it comes to catering to the moronic minority, we are habitual re-offenders. I know the thought of something different, something that cannot be confined and restricted into comfortable molds may leave some of you quivering in your barn boots, but you must realize that your archaic ideals have no place in today's world. You must realize it is you who are wrong, it is not society slipping into the gutter. When you are so panicked by your fear and ignorance that you are pushed to hate, you commit a most heinous sin.
Lewis County is in severe need of a well planted drop-kick into reality. Whatever the basis of some individual's paranoia, be it theological or otherwise, it has no place in education. The limitations of an individual who must survive in the outside world should not be dictated by the ignorant fears of a few vocal yokels.
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