Have you ever had the feeling that you're being discriminated against by a person who is proclaiming his or her open-mindedness?

Jesse Daniel Schomer in his letter Friday entitled, "Agree to disagree," implies that all Catholics are closed-minded in his statement, "What I would like to see is Catholics trying to understand those other viewpoints before they start into the dogmatic criticism." I will gladly call myself a Catholic and in fact am a theology major. I am also a feminist and I do not find these two aspects of myself oxymoronic.

I too gave up cootie shots and ghost stories as a child, and quite frankly I am proud to state that I will never cease to have fun on a swing set — and I question its relevance to Schomer's argument.

My faith neither suggests that I am superstitious, nor does it entail that I have the intellectual development of a child. I feel extremely insulted by these assertions. In Mr. Schomer's broad generalizations, he has excluded while he proclaims to include. He also clutters his argument with affronts that anger more than they provoke thought.

Before Schomer labels me a "knee-jerk conservative," however, I would also like to respond to Peter Zavodnyik's letter on Friday entitled, "`Free speech limited.'" I reject the notion that "The Vagina Monologues" are a "carnival act" and have purchased tickets for one of the performances. Like Schomer, whom he appears to contrast, Zavodnyik implies that all who will attend are children, although he does so in a slightly subtler manner.

That the University can with any certainty determine what will "expose students only to paths that lead them to understand themselves, their world and their maker" seems dubious at best. In addition, I would argue that the Monologues do aid in an increased self-understanding, both for men and for women. Scripture states that God created man and woman in God's image and likeness. In an increased sensitivity toward what it is to be a woman, one can gain a greater understanding of the divine and who God created all of us to be.

Kathryn Ball

junior

McGlinn Hall

Feb. 22, 2002

• Unilateralism handicaps U. S. foreign policy
  
• Homosexuality a categorical good
  
• The price of my dream, and yours
  
• Seek a truly open mind
  
• End the corrupt regime of Grab 'n' Go
  
• Quote of the Day
  
• NDToday/Observer Poll Question