A witch hunt on morality

Gen. Peter Pace has been blamed again and again for discriminating against the gay community.

If anyone’s being discriminated against, it’s him.

All of us know the story line of this political-correctness fiasco. I’ve heard some of my classmates condemn the University for “even thinking” about giving an award to someone who dares to express such a hateful idea (that was the first time I’ve ever laughed in the new honors building). But I’ve heard plenty of opinions similar to my own.

Yes, it’s a First Amendment issue. His statement was a personal opinion, one with which many Americans agree. Revoking an award because of something Pace said in 2007 wouldn’t just be ridiculous. It would be a slap in the face to perhaps the greatest freedom Americans have.

Furthermore, Pace’s award was based on his resume of lifetime achievements – not his views on homosexuality.

Yes, he is representing the Kelly School of Business, but for good reason. The man has spent his life defending our country. His leadership skills belittle those of probably everyone on campus. He’s experienced things many of us only dream about, and he was generous and humble enough to come offer advice to a bunch of 20-something students.

But the root of my anger over this unnecessary controversy lays in the actual wording of Pace’s statement. He told the Chicago Tribune, “I believe homosexual acts between two individuals are immoral and that we should not condone immoral acts.”

Apparently morals, a highly personal set of ethical guidelines, must also surrender to liberal political correctness.

In kindergarten, we learned not to cut people’s hair with scissors. In high school, most of us learned not to stare at the pregnant girl’s stomach. These are morals that the majority of us share. But our upbringings, religious beliefs, cultural backgrounds and thought processes all led us to develop our own unique set of morals for other issues. Gen. Pace chose to express just one part of his set of morals.

Attacking someone for a belief we are all free to hold puts the very idea of morality at stake. If these Pace-haters continue to believe that other people’s morals must align with their own, they might want to consider moving to a communist country.

People aren’t robots. We have the human capability to create our own sets of rights and wrongs. We do not (or at least we should not) have the capability to manipulate the decision-making process of another human being.

Apparently those so deeply offended by Pace’s statement believe everyone should be hardwired with their “open-minded” principles.

The hypocrisy of the far left is, as usual, quite obvious with the Pace situation. If starting a witch-hunt on conservative morality is what the liberals claim as open-mindedness, perhaps their minds stretched so far open their brains fell out.
IU’s Bloominton Faculty Council issued a statement of regret for awarding Gen. Pace the honorary position. I’ll issue my own now.

I regret that I belong to a university community that fell prey to the hypocritical ranting of leftist bullies.

If IU is going to continue to claim it stands for diversity, people on this campus should start recognizing that promoting only liberal beliefs is far from diverse.