Larae, like me, wrote on an emotional topic. Mine, however, will remain for the most part a mystery, since I am no longer working with a friend who became a lesbian several years after I first knew her. This week our topic in class about gays and the ensuing brouhaha over it made me challenge some long-held ideas and beliefs. I don't believe we have the right as individuals to foist our personal belief systems on certain sections of the population. This is tatamount to discrimination of another kind, only this time, it blankets not only blacks, but all races who may have gays in their ranks. And blankets smother. We need to understand that everyone--man, woman, child, black, ethnic, gay, or straight--has the inalienable right to pursue their own happiness in whatever manner they so choose, as long as no one is harmed in that pursuit. We don't have to approve it or condone it. It is not our right as human beings to judge what others clearly see as right for them. We only need to judge what is right for ourselves as individuals. To that end, whether we like the idea of gay or not, we need only accept it and those who choose to practice it. Put yourself in their shoes and try to feel how they must feel. They are only trying to give love in the only way comfortable and natural for them. And isn't that what we do? Think about being heterosexual in a GAY society, and having to endure ridicule and hate because of who you are and what you represent. Paints a quite different picture, doesn't it? All I'm saying is, as Lennon very eloquently put it--"Give Peace a chance." Until we can live in harmony, accept others as we hope to be accepted, there will be no peace. Reflect on that. (And forgive the soapbox.)