When I read this article, I was shocked by the behavior of these college students. Perhaps the most disturbing part is that the conservative students say this is a pattern – they feel that liberal students are trying to intimidate them, to suppress their freedom of speech. I hope the students who defaced the crosses think about how their own actions can, in fact, threaten open and honest discourse. I hope that they think about how they would feel if their own political or religious statements were so severely mocked, vandalized.

Sadly, while I read this piece I also found myself thinking, “Why would those kids – the conservatives/Republicans – even advertise that they are conservatives in the first place? Don’t they know how they’ll get hazed for it?”

You see, I, myself, did not tell people that I was a conservative when I was in college (in the early 1990s). I knew that I might be mocked for it, so I kept my political views to myself. I later referred to the moment that I told friends about my party affiliation (in the spring of my senior year, when I was less concerned about my reputation!) as my conservative-coming-out-of-the-closet.

What does this all mean? Are young people increasingly intolerant of views from the right? If that’s true, we’re in big trouble. How can we have healthy debate if only one perspective is represented? A variety of ideas is what makes America great.

Submitted by ASO member: Jean Card