A few weeks ago I wrote a column on the passing of the Beehive (“Good riddance to the… A few weeks ago I wrote a column on the passing of the Beehive (“Good riddance to the Beehive,” May 23). I never liked the place and wanted to poke fun at the people who were its regular customers.

I wrote on how I disliked those freaks (which is their term, not mine) and how uncomfortable I felt around them. Well, about half the people who wrote back got the joke. They knew I was poking fun and got a laugh out of it.

But the other half who wrote back had a different take. They said I was wrong for feeling the way I did. I was told that I didn’t have the right to judge people based on how they dress or looked. I was told that having an opinion of someone based on those things made me a Republican, a redneck, a communist, a racist and a Nazi.

Have we really become that politically correct? Does a person not have the right to make his or her own decisions on people based on whatever criteria he or she wants? Have we become so liberal that we no longer tolerate anyone who is uncomfortable as a result of how people express themselves or what someone is expressing?

Are we no longer allowed such luxuries as free thought or free speech because we might offend someone?

What next? Am I now not allowed to look at someone I find unattractive and think, “Man, she’s fat! I don’t want to have sex with her”?

If I did think it, that would make me the kind of person who makes judgments based upon appearances. And gosh, I would make that person feel bad. So golly, I guess it’s wrong to have an opinion, because someone else might disagree and you might make him or her upset.

Now let’s put all sarcasm aside (besides, no one thought it was funny last time) and be honest. The way people dress is one of the ways people express themselves. You make a statement by your clothes, your tattoos, piercings, haircut and so on.

And it’s been this way since the beginning of civilization. Appearance has been used to express religion, philosophies, politics, social status and your favorite sports team. Even if you dress in the most common, banal way and make sure that you’re not making a statement, that is a statement in and of itself.

And just like a spoken statement, one can agree or disagree with it. And everyone has the right to think or say, “Hey, I don’t like that! That statement makes me uncomfortable!”

So when I look at a guy wearing a “Free Mumia Abu-Jamal” shirt, I have the right to judge him. I have the right to say, “I agree with him, therefore I am comfortable with him.” And when I look at a guy who wears all black, dies his hair pink, has 13 earrings, 12 tattoos, a dog collar around his neck and drinks his mocha latt