Letters to the Editor

Marriage a basic human right

In light of the recent events granting legal marriages… Marriage a basic human right

In light of the recent events granting legal marriages to same-sex couples, I think it’s about damn time! On a more personal note, I’m a straight girl who loves straight boys, and I don’t see anything wrong with those who prefer otherwise.

Where do people come off saying that gays and lesbians shouldn’t be granted “special rights” just because of their sexual preference? I can’t even begin to comprehend what is meant by that. For crying out loud! These people shouldn’t have to even defend their right to marry one another in the first place, because it should have already been a right granted to them at birth.

Sure, then you’ve got all of the religious beliefs that oppose such unions, but who says that you have to get married in a church? Tons of straight marriages occur in courthouses across the country every year.

Should it matter what a person’s sexual orientation is when it comes to their natural human rights? No! Come on, I thought that this was America; the land of the free, the home of the brave. I guess it’s too easy for us to forget how not so holier-than-thou this country really is.

Don’t get me wrong; I say the pledge every morning at school and I have plenty of pride in my country. It’s just that civil rights have been evolving very rapidly within our country.

Let us not forget that it was not even half a century ago that African Americans were fighting for their rights. They’d been labeled and branded for the color of their skin.

And now we’ve got gays and lesbians fighting for their rights as humans too, but for something that, to the rest of us, is invisible. For something that many have hidden for years, something that you cannot see, but it lies deep within a person, that unfortunately society has taught us to be ashamed of.

When will we ever learn? Does it mean nothing to know that this country was founded on freedom of belief? Have we learned nothing of all of the obstacles that minorities have had to overcome just to gain freedom, respect and equality? Or are we just blinded by ignorance and our differences? Hello? Knock, knock: is anybody listening, watching, learning or caring?

We should learn to drop our differences and age-old fear of something we don’t know. Embrace change. After all, there’s no such thing as perfect and everyday should be seen as a learning experience.

Tanya Bromley

Senior

East Valley High School

Spokane, Washington

Administrators, politicians should provide funding for service learning

I started to read the article, “Free grad school offered to volunteers” in the Nov. 20 edition of The Pitt News with great interest. I found my service as an AmeriCorps*VISTA participant (2000-01) with the Pennsylvania Service-Learning Alliance at the University of Pittsburgh, to be a critical influence on my education and career path.

There is a growing trend at universities across the country to support AmeriCorps and Peace Corps alumni with discounted tuition for degrees related to public service. The University of Delaware is creating a culture in which service and education go hand in hand, and I urge the University of Pittsburgh to do the same.

The stories Israel Guzman related about the important work Americorps volunteers are doing around the country are not news to me. Those of us involved see the impact our programs have on struggling communities on a daily basis. The problem is that we do not seem to be doing a great job of conveying the importance of these experiences to administrators and politicians who control the funding, and ultimately the possibility that our work can go on.

What you learn while doing community service can significantly augment what you learn in a lecture hall. Politics, philosophy, psychology, education, social work, neuroscience, literature and writing courses come to life when you have an opportunity to see these issues at play in the real world.

Although the VISTA program at Pitt has been discontinued as reported, the Student Volunteer Outreach offers many other opportunities for service: America Reads Challenge Tutoring Program, One Time and On Going Service Projects, Jumpstart Pittsburgh, Amizade Global Service-Learning Projects and Alternative Spring Breaks, to name a few.

I challenge the University to continue support for these programs, and encourage all Pitt students to get more out of their education, by getting out of the classroom and into service.

Katy Frey

AmeriCorps*VISTA alumna (2000-01)

University of Pittsburgh alumna 2003

Currently on staff in the Office of Student Life