Powell Not a Bigot

I feel compelled to speak on behalf of General Colin Powell. In the arguments we are seeing unfold before us, little attempt is being made to separate the issue from the individual. Despite what popular sentiment may be on this campus, I very much doubt that General Powell is the bigot he is being made out to be.

His opinions concerning homosexuals in the military do not necessarily mirror his opinions of homosexuals as a group, but only apply to this one issue.

And without a doubt this issue is not a clear one. In forming his opinions the General has had to take into account a variety of facets of military life which we as civilians probably cannot even comprehend. Our University is an island, an artificial community, and the few students here who participate in ROTC do not represent the normal cross-section of enlisted men and women. I have known dozens of high school graduates who joined the armed services as their only hope. Military jobs often serve as the only alternative to a monthly welfare check, the only way out for young people coming from bad schools and poor homes. These individuals are often intolerant of those unlike themselves, and open hostility is not a foreign concept to them--violence was often a part of their youths. Thus we come to have a military which is an extremely hostile environment for homosexuals. General Powell realizes the extent of this hostility--the kind of hostility that has at times led to murder--and has based his opinions concerning this issue on what understanding of what the military is.

Have I made broad generalizations here? Is my logic flawed? If you wish to disagree with me, that is understandable; but do not condemn me for my opinions. Likewise, do not condemn General Powell. Let him speak in peace. William E. Pike '95