Constituent unhappy with USG
As a third-year engineering student, I am embarrassed and offended by the comments made by USG engineering representative David Overeem regarding Harvey Fierstein’s appearance on OSU’s campus. His comment that “the North American Man-Boy Love Association would love a speaker” insinuates that homosexuality is comparable with pedophilia, which it is not. Homosexual relationships, like heterosexual relationships, represent a loving union between two reasonable and consenting adults. David Overeem’s ignorance and prejudice have no place in USG or in this university. Nor do his comments accurately represent his constituents, the engineering community. A week ago, after receiving a mass e-mail from Overeem advertising himself as one of the most politically conservative members of USG, I responded by asking how he will gather feedback from the people he represents. I stated that as a politically-liberal engineering student, I didn’t feel he was adequately representing the student body. His response to me was this: ‘If the fact that I am a conservative is distasteful to you, then perhaps you need to vote for the other guy.’ It is sad that our elected representative does not care what his constituents think and doesn’t have the ability to refrain from speaking his prejudiced mind.
Carol Allensenior electrical engineering student
