Dear Alan:

Scott just sent me your “Allies, Too” information. Now THIS is progress!!! This is ALL I really wanted from you all along. Too bad you waited to do it as a response to the GSA “Allies Week” announcement of October 15, 2006. It would have been cool for it to be EXODUS’s own initiative, not a reaction to the Gay Student Alliance making the move. But, hey, I will take it no matter HOW it got done.

Why not make it apply to all of us, not just students, and announce it at the LWO conference? If you will do that, I will personally let the so-called “pro-gay” forces KNOW where exactly where you stand TODAY. Why not put these same three points on the FRONT PAGE of the EXODUS website – not just for STUDENTS to pledge, but for ALL of us (on BOTH sides of the “gay issue”) to “make the WORLD (not just schools) a safe and abuse-free place for all people” (not just students).

Maybe put a “button” on your front page that reads: “Our Pledge for a Safe and Harassment Free World”.

(1) Never use slurs or demeaning language against anyone.

(2) Make efforts, when I feel it’s possible, to stop any name-calling or harassment I see.

(3) Express my beliefs with compassion, and pursue dialog with those who disagree.

The language is something that I think all of us could agree on. I would promote these three points in everything I say and let people know that EXODUS wrote it.

I have printed out a copy and just signed it. Let’s all pledge to do the same RIGHT NOW. I believe it is WAY past time.

In Christ,
Michael

http://www.pbs.org/wonders/fr_wn.htm is a great place to begin to explore just how stupid Schonewolf is when he says that pre-slave-era Africa was basically a an “uncivilized, savage jungle”.

Quote from the site: “Africa is a continent of magnificent treasures and cultures — from the breathtaking stone architecture of 1,000-year-old ruins in South Africa to an advanced 16th century international university in Timbuktu. However, for centuries, many of these African wonders have been hidden from the world, lost to the ravages of time, nature and repressive governments.”

The website includes articles on: Black Kingdoms of the Nile, Temples of Abu Simbel, Black Pharaohs, City of Jebel Barkal, Pyramids at Giza, The Swahili Coast, Historic Gedi The Swahili People, Slave Kingdoms, Ashanti Kingdom and many others.

“With all due respect, there is another way, or other ways, to look at the race issue in America. It could be pointed out, for example, that Africa at the time of slavery was still primarily a jungle, as yet uncivilized or industrialized. Life there was savage, as savage as the jungle for most people, and that it was the Africans themselves who first enslaved their own people. They sold their own people to other countries, and those brought to Europe, South America, America, and other countries, were in many ways better off than they had been in Africa. But if one even begins to say these things one is quickly shouted down as though one were a complete madman.”

The only point that flys right past me is #8. The words love, bonding, empathy, and devotion are abstract and difficult for educators to get a firm consensus or grasp on when relating to students from such varied backgrounds and experiences. I guess I’m assuming, maybe wrongfully so, that #4 (quality sex education) means that we’d probably hit on most of these at some point in public education…it’s got to start that early if any difference is to be made within our culture over the long haul.

#8 makes it sound like we’re going to say it’s okay to have sex as long as you are bonded and empathetic to those you are having sex with. Heck…that would pretty much create a school-wide orgy at the middle school level!

I’m loving this discussion!

in Christ,
pam whitley, a.k.a. grace