Wrong is wrong
Letter to the Editor
If we are to believe Bill Fenton ("UConn chants were not that bad, 2/16") then we can toss rules of etiquette altogether and simply rate our behavior against something worse. That should be easy. Never mind etiquette! Following his logic (and I am talking reasoning here, not basketball) everything from human rights violations (well, the Germans killed 6 million Jews!) to speeding through a red light and causing a traffic accident in which one maims only one of five children (well, there was this guy who killed an entire family in a car accident!) can be made somehow less unacceptable, and we can let ourselves off the hook for what is in and of itself wrong. Worse yet is the notion that if we have been the recipient of some action that was wrong, we have the right to do some action that is wrong — as long as it is in our eyes less wrong — and we should not be criticized for it.
Back to sports. Class isn't just peeing on your opponent or not vandalizing his car. Class, if you'll pardon the expression, is in a class by itself. We can't excuse our behavior by comparing it to something worse. It's like what Coach D said: "Anything that is vulgar or is a personal slur has no place in the Joyce Center." Quite simple, if you think about it.
We'll leave out, for the moment, the discussion about living in glass houses and throwing stones.
Ursula Williams
Director, Language Resource Center
February 15, 2000
All Viewpoint Stories for Friday, February 18, 2000
