To the Editor:
I agree with Sarah Johnston on the fact that some Dartmouth students' views on and reactions to sex need to be examined. However, I disagree with her request for Beta to release its infamous poem.
From what I've read and heard about the poem, it is not something I am interested in reading, and I don't believe that its release will be beneficial to our understanding of sexual and racial relations at Dartmouth.
In our little society, it is sometimes difficult to remember that we each have the right to express our views, providing they are not physically harmful to anyone. We must put a stop to trying to conform everyone to a particular point of view, as popular and, in my opinion, as right that point of view might be.
Writing a racist or sexist poem is still not against the law, even in Hanover, so let's stop reacting to these types of incidents as if they are.
Instead of pointing fingers at all the Beta brothers and trying to force them to release a poem that is no one's business but theirs, take a step back and look at the big picture.
There comes a point after trying to teach ignorant people that racism is wrong and sexism is wrong, that you just have to stop; we can't torture them into sharing our views.
Without infringing on anyone's constitutional rights, we can still make a change on this campus; we can do it by taking control over our own views and voicing them loudly!
I guarantee that not everyone who heard that poem for the first time agreed with the message it sent, but I also guarantee that not enough of these people immediately left or spoke out against it. They stayed and ignored its crude message, so as to not offend the offender. This sounds absurd, but it happens repeatedly.
If you don't like Beta because either you don't like the sounds of the poem ... don't go to their parties.
I've seen too many people complaining about the Greek system and then turning around and attending their parties. I've also seen too many people laughing at sexist and racist jokes after professing to hate them.
If we were each just a bit more steadfast in our beliefs, we could tackle writers of evil poems (and other beasts that roam this campus) a lot more quickly than we could with search and seizure type measures.
If we continue supporting others' beliefs by not following through with our own, and then have the nerve to try to force others into a model of what we simply say we believe in, we won't change a thing.
