Ah, Notre Dame. A place where young minds come to search for new ideas, expose themselves to perspectives other than their own. A place where not just the physical landscape has beauty, but so too do our thoughts of common and uncommon, controversial and uncontroversial, Catholic and non-Catholic origin. Notre Dame must be more than simply a place where "children toss footballs" and "family and friends visit to see their darling sons and daughters and brothers and sisters," as Ricky McRoskey's article points out. McRoskey is apparently offended by the fact that his younger brother will have to be traumatized by the word "vagina" appearing in the dining hall. Rather than force such horror on this innocent mind let us rid the campus of these outlandish signs. I'd like to further this line of thinking. My younger sister has read The Observer, and I'd really rather her not be exposed to such excessive close-mindedness as displayed by McRoskey's letter. Let us rid the campus of this too. In fact, let us rid the campus of everything remotely controversial. McRoskey is right; our standards of appropriateness should be those of a ten-year-old.But really, let's have some consistency. McRoskey's point about his inability to sell shirts with a beer logo on campus, or ones with "lewd or sexual slogans across them" is well taken. Clearly the signs saying "vagina" are similarly motivated, as a theatrical performance trying to end violence against women is as reprehensible as a student selling "lewd" shirts. Since when is a college campus subject to censorship at the elementary school level? May we have a little appreciation for something with a noble cause and an original approach.
Ray SchleckfreshmanKeenan HallFeb. 5
