One idea is not necessarily as good as another
To the editor:
Perhaps I’m not the only member of the campus community who has seen the mural (black lettering on an orange background) on the wall of the building near Bixby Hall that reads “One idea is as good as another.” Hopefully, if that is the case, I’m not the only one to have noticed the slight flaw in this all-too-common reasoning.
After all, if one idea is as good as another, then I suppose that the idea, common for centuries, that women were mere chattel, property owned by their fathers until marriage and their husbands afterwards, is as good as the idea that women are full-fledged human beings, with rights to their person and their property. And the idea that racial purity is a desirable goal, one worth committing genocide and “ethnic cleansing” to attain, is as good as the idea that tolerance and diversity are desirable.
For that matter, if “one idea is as good as another,” then the idea that that statement is the most idiotic, puerile, vapid idea I’ve ever heard is as good as the idea that “one idea is as good as another.”
But they can’t both be good ideas; they are mutually exclusive. Nor can they both be bad ideas, for if “one idea is as good as another” is a bad idea, then the idea that it is a (very) bad idea can’t be a bad idea. And since they are both absolutes, allowing for no middle ground, they can’t both be marginally good ideas; they’re either right or wrong. Hence, one of them is demonstrably not “as good as the other.”
Jim Yanni
Washington University Staff
Shuttle Driver
Support Take Back the Night
To the editor:
I’m writing this letter to express my hope that, even though Sexual Assault Awareness Week has ended, the discussion of issues like rape on our campus will not. I especially would like for this discussion to permeate beyond individuals and groups that are committed to “women’s issues,” as rape and violence are issues that affect everyone, whether we are aware of it or not.
In publicizing an event that I’ve worked to organize that brings attention to these issues, I’ve been met with a great deal of resistance. A few of my friends have told me that sitting down to talk about rape isn’t going to accomplish anything; they don’t rape or commit violence, and no one who attends these kinds of events would either.
Part of the problem is that if we gain almost a sense of security by our avoidance of this issue. We want to believe that it’s not as widespread as it really is so that we can worry less about ourselves and our friends. However, we are only hurting ourselves and the victims of these crimes by our failure to acknowledge their pervasiveness. By not talking about it, by not calling attention to the fact that our society allows these crimes to occur only further encourages victims to keep silent and for attention to their existence to diminish.
Pledging to be an individual who doesn’t rape or commit violence against women is not enough. For there to be change, we need the activism of men as well as women. If a world without rape and violence is something you’d like to see, please come to this year’s Take Back the Night-this Wednesday, Oct. 30. It’s an event meant to raise awareness about these issues, and we’d love to see both men and women there. Take Back the Night consists of a women’s march and a men’s discussion. We’ll meet in the Quad at 7 p.m. I hope to see everyone there.
Lisa Kohn
Arts and Sciences
Class of 2005