To the Editors:
In his e-mail to all employees and all students of Bowdoin, Dean of Students Tim Foster, discussing the racially and homophobic biased incident that occurred in Coles Tower this week, said that this type of behavior "hurts people." In his email, Foster was of course referring to the personal feelings of the people directly offended, but I think it needs to be emphasized again and again that things like this don't hurt just those at whom the hate is directed.
Things like this hurt every person who is affiliated with the college; students, faculty, staff, alumni, even prospective students. Not only does malicious hate speech like this make the people at whom it is directed feel unsafe and injured, but it damages the spirit of community that we have here, as well as generally drag down the good name of our fine institution.
Needless to say, the person who did this is despicable. But catching the culprit shouldn't be the our sole goal: our goal should be to not left this incident pass by like so many others. The students and administration need to join together and respond to this with more than just a talk where only a small portion of the people and opinions are represented.
I challenge my fellow students to go to the meeting at 7 p.m. on Sunday in Daggett Lounge, and I challenge them to not let that be the last thing we do about this instance.
Sincerely,
Liam Killion '11