T-shirts wearers wanted attention

Hatred is alive and well in St. Charles. The recent T-shirt issue at St. Charles North High School has provided the media with plenty of juicy material for the evening news. Which, of course, is just what the T-shirt warriors were after.

Wearing clothing splattered with hate messages to school during a week dedicated to tolerance was a slick, calculated move. Selling these T-shirts was an even slicker move. As you broadcast your bigotry, might as well make some money from hatred while you're at it.

If the T-shirts had read “White Male Power” on the front and on the back advocated enslaving black African Muslim girls, I wonder how that would have gone over. Slavery of girls is, of course, advocated in the very book of the Bible that these young men quoted.

The law spelled out in the books of Leviticus and Exodus also endorses stoning people who curse and blaspheme. I wonder if the T-shirt dudes have ever cursed or used the Lord's name in vain. If so, has anyone pelted them with stones? The Bible expressly forbids people from working on the Sabbath. Have these kids ever done homework on Sunday? If they have jobs, do they work on Sunday? If so, the Bible plainly states that they should be put to death.

Obviously, the T-shirt desperadoes are not Bible literate. I doubt they've read the book of Leviticus, from whence comes their famously pulled-out-of-context verse. I wonder if they've read the New Testament in which Jesus distills his message of love: “In everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law.” Jesus also said, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”

From my understanding of Jesus' words, there are no qualifiers, such as “do unto others what you would have them do to you, but only if they're heterosexual white guys.” Or, “Love one another, but only straight, white Americans.”

Valerie Blaine

St. Charles