To the Editor:
Meaningful dialogue was damaged Sunday night when unidentified elements chose to slander the Tufts Christian Fellowship (TCF) by chalking on the ground and painting the cannon. The timing was deliberate, being the midnight before the student activities fair. While this letter was going to focus on my disbelief and disappointment, and hope for genuine discussion, I'd rather tell a different tale.
By 1a.m., eight of us were gathered outside the campus center, debating on whether or not to erase the chalking (the four of us who opposed it arrived too late to stop some erasing). Those who favored spending the early Monday morning hours erasing articulated the need for action, making overtures to the previous semester (wary of accusations of silence and inactivity). Others insisted that removal would only exacerbate the perception that TCF sought obfuscation, also considerate of those accusations.
Particularly troublesome was the fact that students unfamiliar with the situation didn't receive any explanation, but rather an unkind, four-word summary from one position. I'll hazard to say that such a start is not the right way to begin an understanding of anything. This fact alone made erasing the chalking very appealing.
Nevertheless, leaving the chalking as it stood was decided as the best course of action, even though some of us still cried out for action. All of our hearts were pained that it was there. It was a violation of Tufts policy that it was chalked at all. It was worse due to the cruel timing. And worse still is that, for many students, the whole issue is still unclear: four words do it no justice. This letter speaks little about it. Even Jonathan Crowe's viewpoint (see "Unsafe?", page 11) cannot cover every nuance about the complaint, the decision, and the overturning. Those things aside, no amount of campus dialogue can possibly resolve the issue abstracted from Tufts, although we are obligated to try.
We believe in a single truth; such beliefs are protected. But more importantly, freedom to follow counter-cultural values should be valued, not discouraged, at this institution known as a university.
Jonathan I. Lee, LA '01
