Editor, Daily Nexus,

To start off this letter, I’d like to quote the wise Yoda. When asked why fear has any significance in the Jedi Arts, Yoda responded, “Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” I couldn’t agree more, which is why I felt somewhat hypocritical after conversing with a friend about my article (“Harsh Politics Harbor Sexism, Racism and Homophobia,” Daily Nexus, May 15, 2002).

I detest when people misplace hate and I advocate against it all the time. In fact, the disclaimer that I included at the beginning of my article stated that it was not my intent to do that. However, the end effect of my article did roughly turn out to be me arguing “hate” and “right-wing” are one and the same.

In the article, I mentioned several instances when right-wing individuals behaved in ways that demean/insult/attack those that they hate. It often involves members of the Gauchoholics and/or College Republicans. Being a far left-winger myself, I can’t help but dream of the day when right-wingers won’t get a single vote on the ballots. But today is not that day and I dare not wish it now. I was ecstatic when the results of the recent elections showed overwhelming victories for SAC candidates, but is this a true representation of the student population or just the unbalanced result of the party system?

Unlike Mr. Kalinksi of the College Republicans, I do think that the function of the student government is to represent the views of all constituents. If that means that the view of the left-wingers won’t always prevail, so be it. At least one would be able to hope that all views would be treated as having an equal amount of validity.

While I stand by the basic arguments of my article, I wish to apologize to any members of those groups mentioned who do not fall under the descriptions I assigned to them in a generalized way. Attacks of a racist, political or physical nature, like those I mentioned in my article, lead to fear of more attacks.

Devillifying conservatives in the eyes of the student population is not in the best interest of the SAC party. It may lead more people to consider voting for the Gauchoholics during the next election. But as childishly innocent as my stance may be, all I really wish we could have is honesty within government.

IVAN PEREZ

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