Independent Student Newspaper for the University of Texas at San Antonio

The Paisano

Independent Student Newspaper for the University of Texas at San Antonio

The Paisano

Independent Student Newspaper for the University of Texas at San Antonio

The Paisano

Spreading tolerance with hate and violence

This letter is directed to Cliff Perez regarding his, “Atheists preach the ‘good word'” commentary article.

There’s something I’ve noticed about people who use the word ‘tolerance’ to make a point; they often don’t take their own advice. In your article covering ‘Atheist Agenda’s’ ‘Smut for Smut’ campaign, you took the time to call me racist, homophobic, radical and to associate me with the Westboro Baptist Church among other ‘hate spewing’ comments in some sort of Orwellian effort to show how tolerant you are.

I am a student here at UTSA and am a member of the Tea Party. I’m not religious, actually – I’m an atheist, but I wouldn’t be caught dead anywhere near the ‘Atheist Agenda’ trolls, so it’d be hard to compare me with radical members of a religious (or anti-religious) cult. I’m a member of the gay conservative group (although I am straight) GoProud and am a supporter of the Log Cabin Republicans, so it’d be hard to call me homophobic.

You could call me a racist if that makes you feel good, but you’d have to claim that I am racist toward whites, blacks or some other race because I just happen to be Mexican-American.

And regarding the Tea Party being radical, please explain to me how advocating for lower taxes, less deficit spending and more individual liberty is radical? If that is what is considered radical these days then this country is in more trouble than I thought.

I agree with your point on the Atheist Agenda kids, they are evangelical atheists and as far as I’m concerned they‘re ‘live-in-person internet trolls’ who insult people to garner attention. But while Atheist Agenda targets only one large group of people; religious folk – you speak of tolerance and slam several groups of people in your article.

 If you really want to know about the Tea Party, feel free to ask me although I doubt you’d be interested in educating yourself about us. I am used to having people like you sit atop your mountain and randomly throw bombs at people like me simply because you believe what the television tells you. But if you’re really trying to be tolerant, maybe you should take another look at yourself and keep in mind that a large and diverse group of people attend this school and read your paper.

You tend to lose credibility on the subject when your article is full of hate. Inarticulate slam articles like this are one of the reasons I don’t take your paper very seriously and as a proud student here at UTSA I’d much rather read something intelligent in the school paper in-between classes.

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