COLUMN: "Profiles in Outrage"

From Caren Lissner's "Pretty Sneaky Sis," Spring '92. When I was a columnist during the spring semester of last year, the comment I received most frequently was, "Well, your columns are okay, but they certainly aren't very controversial." I really didn't have too many controversial viewpoints at the time. Nevertheless, I wondered if the masses would be happier if I penned something like this: Whartonites are shallow bastards who only care about money. Also, Penn should stop admitting minorities. By the way, neither the Armenian nor the Jewish holocaust happened. In conclusion, I'd like to recite all the four-letter words I know and tell you about my anatomy. There were actually two controversial issues -- fraternities and religion -- that I considered seriously writing about, but they'd been addressed far too many times. Besides, I wasn't an expert on them, and they provoke blind hatred more than any other topics. · As our first story begins in 1987, a fraternity was being vilified for an incident involving strippers, and a freshman whom we'll call Fred Schmann decided to write a column denouncing fraternities. Write it he did, and he quickly became infamous. Frat party posters announced, "Fred Schmann not invited" and Schmann reportedly received threatening phone calls for weeks. An easy object of hatred had been found and sacrificed. When questioned about the ordeal in 1989, Schmann said that if he had the chance to do it all again, he probably wouldn't write the column. Again last year, a columnist received death threats when he wrote an article against fraternities. Admittedly, there was a lot about John Shu's columns that angered people. Shu said last week that he never expected to cause controversy with his columns on fraternities or Asian-related issues; in fact, when he showed one of the columns to his roommate before it ran, his roommate only commented that it seemed "boring." However, Shu said that he received several phone calls a night for months, and he still has the tapes of some of them. Shu added that he doesn't regret anything he said and that he did have some supporters, although his critics received the most attention. "Either John Shu was a deity of sorts, a hero of the people, or John Shu was a jerk, or worse," Shu said. Shu said he had police protection for a while although he didn't believe threats such as "I'm gonna throw a rock through your window" when he lived on the 20th floor of High Rise North. He doesn't know if all of the calls were from fraternity brothers, but he never got one from a female. Shu reports that some people who meet him still react negatively when they find out who he is, and this year he's been "trying to keep a low profile." · Religion is the other major issue that causes a furor. I have always wondered if I missed out by not having a strict religious background, but I think it's better that I was not given a prescribed set of beliefs. However, this isn't something I would press on anyone or even bring up most of the time, because that kind of reasoning does not placate the pious. Last year, then-freshman Michael Friedman wrote a column called "Don't Be a Jellyfish," in which he criticized those who blindly follow a religion. It wasn't a diatribe against Christianity or Zoroastrianism. Nevertheless, I later noticed that in my dormitory a girl had cut out Friedman's picture, drawn horns on it, taped it to her door and written "SATAN" under it. Friedman said this week that none of the other columns he wrote, including a somewhat-controversial piece against the Gulf War, got him in the hot water the religion article did. Friedman does not regret writing the column, but he said that he would advise other columnists against writing about religion unless they were prepared to defend their views 100 percent. He also denies any connection to the Devil. · Columnists who have fanned the fires of controversy are divided about whether they regret making their opinions known. Apparently, columnists who go down in defeat in a vain defense of a single principle may not be on hand to fight for that or any principle in the future. It seems that fraternities and religious groups are most afraid of criticism, but it's a shame that more intelligent responses can't be made. Obviously, every fraternity or fraternity member should not be criticized for the actions of a few -- but those few, when they actually get caught in an offensive group action, should stop claiming that the community service they did made up for it. Sure, fraternities encourage bonding and friendships, but when the group mentality leads to dangerous hazing practices or harassment, there is no excuse. As for religion, I'm reminded of an incident freshman year. I took a course called Classical Backgrounds of English Literature, in which we studied Greek mythology and the Bible as sources of modern allusions. For one of my papers, I had to treat the people in the Bible as characters as in Greek mythology, and point out contradictions. I'll admit, it was a blasphemous thing to do, but it was only a paper. I later found out during a floor discussion of religion that one of my hallmates had spied the paper on my desk, read it, and quickly ran out to alert his religious friend of my heresy. I often wonder about the people I know who claim to believe in a benevolent deity and then spend 20 hours a week singing songs in praise of that deity. I think a truly benevolent deity would rather see them spending two hours a week helping feed the homeless instead of massaging his/her/its ego. If I'm wrong, I really would like to hear other opinions. I can't speak for other columnists, but I don't have all the answers in life. And I don't understand why people who believe they do must resort to phoning those they don't agree with and drawing horns on their heads. It may not be worth it to state your opinions, even if you admit you're unsure or even if you go to school in an institution supposedly made up of open-minded people. So for now, I guess I'll just keep my mouth shut. · Caren Lissner is a junior English major from Old Bridge, New Jersey. Pretty Sneaky Sis appears alternate Fridays.

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