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November 21, 2009

TRIBUNE-STAR EDITORIAL: Church marquee and teenager’s letter demonstrate power of words

Anonymous The Tribune Star Sat Nov 21, 2009, 06:15 PM EST

TERRE HAUTE — “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never harm me.”

Although most of us have repeated that childhood chant, we know from experience — and legislation and court rulings — that words sometimes can harm. Whether it’s bullying on social networking sites or “hate speech” that incites people to violence against their fellow citizens, words can be weapons that inflict real pain.

Words have consequences.

That was the message a Terre Haute teenager delivered this past week in a lengthy, barbed letter to the editor of the Tribune-Star. The 13-year-old middle school student described her “shock” at spotting a local church marquee that read:

JESUS DIED AND ROSE

AND LIVES FOR YOU

WHAT DID ALLAH DO

The girl wrote, “In the short span of my life, I had never seen such direct, vicious hatred.” She imagined the pain such words would cause Muslim friends. She said the people who posted the sign should be pitied because they “suffer from a malady of the mind.”

“If I, a 13-year-old, had noticed this,” she asked, “how could the adult who had written these prejudiced words not seen the blatant injustice?”

As is often the case with speech that offends, the person responsible for displaying the words on the church marquee did not see the injustice — either before posting the sign or after the middle school student denounced it. The pastor of the church told the Tribune-Star his sign was intended only to tell people “the founder of Christianity still lives.” Curiously, he pointed to the lack of a question mark after “Allah” as evidence that no slur against Muslims had been meant. People, he said, were choosing to make the sign’s message “a political statement.”

Most of the responses we’ve received to the girl’s letter, and to a news story on the controversy, have been angry and defensive. One reader accused the teen’s parents of being the real letter writers and advised the girl to “move to an Islamic country where Christians are not allowed and if someone becomes a Christian, they are murdered! … Their rallying cry is also ‘Death to America.’ How do you like that for tolerance!”

Another person wrote that he suspected it was the girl’s “Hindu mother that brought about the story.”

Committed as we are to the fullest protection of the First Amendment, the editors here hope all the people who have weighed in (or will) on the church sign and the middle school student’s letter appreciate the freedom of public expression, and do not regret exercising their right.

Especially the school girl.

These days, lots of people complain, but it takes conviction to turn complaint into action and courage to sign one’s name to a complaint meant for publication. Thirteen is a tender age to learn first-hand that strong, angry words about offensive words usually produce even stronger, angrier and doubly offensive words.

On the other hand, every American needs to know that. Words have consequences.

What would be refreshing now would be to hear the angry shouting give way to dialogue, to see the church pastor and the teenager sit down with others who are interested in using language to find common ground. Just as words can injure, so can they heal. Each of us gets to make the choice.

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