From: lcrew@andromeda.rutgers.edu (Louie Crew)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.christia
Subject: Re: Gays want to be left alone???
Date: 15 Sep 92 17:36:05 GMT
Reply-To: <lcrew@andromeda.rutgers.edu>
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.

BARRYW@UCSFVM.BITNET (Barry Wadsworth) writes:
>They want us to let them ...teach our children.
>They want to be teachers and principals, role models for our children.

Sugar, are you whipping up troops to get me fired?

I've been teaching since 1958, and I seriously doubt that any student, strait
or gay, has looked to me as a model for their sexuality.

As some other wag said a couple of decades ago, if students modeled their 
sexuality after their teachers', most adults in this country would be nuns.

On the other hand, students might do well to model their lives on the courage
of teachers who take risks.  We who do, give much more forceful models than 
any found on the athletic field.

A couple of weeks ago I received a copy of a book of poems from the author,
whom I did not even recognize by name or by picture.  On the back, Annie 
Dillard, a much acclaimed writer of our time, said that this new book "makes 
a rhythm as beautiful as that of any poem in English.  XX is a fine poet."
XX, the poet enclosed this letter with a copy of his book.  It speaks to
the issue of what you claim about the influence of gay teachers and all other
Pied Pipers:

    Dear Louie Crew,

    As one who has taught for the past eighteen years, I am aware just
    how indirect an idea we have of what we accomplish there.  Any my
    memory of the first day in your freshman English Comp class is one I
    do not expect you to have.  What was for you merely an introduction to
    the course and the establishing of authority was for me something
    unforgettable.  You picked up one of the oversized ceiling lamps that
    had been left on the desk and calmly recited Wordsworth's THE WORLD
    IS TOO MUCH WITH US into it.  From that very moment of hearing the 
    spoken music, poetry has lived within me.  That night I read aloud
    poems for the first time.  I learned to read.  Writing poems soon 
    began defining my life.  This book that I send to you with gratitude
    took most of the last 15 years.  I hope it offers you some pleasure.

    A secondary purpose here is to request more information about an
    organization, Integrity [the organization of lesbigay Episcopalians 
    which I, Louie, founded in 1974], that my friend, the Rev. XY, tells
    me that you have been urging him to join.  It seems to me that 
    whatever spiritual journey we are attempting through the human heart
    the only real measure we have of ourselves is our inclusive attempt
    to participate in unconditional love.  I'm not interested in the legalism
    that prevents the journey, as one who tries to believe in what the
    Episcopal Church is supposed to be.  Although I am not much of a joiner,
    I would like to see what Integrity is.

    I hope you are well.  Please accept this book with my gratitude.....

So much for the danger of a quean's classroom.

I have a desk for you, Barry.  And I still can recite THE WORLD IS TOO MUCH
WITH US....   When you read it, notice particularly the line beginning
"Great God, I'd rather be...."

Meanwhile, if you still want to get me fired, write and say so to

     Dr. Francis Lawrence, President
     Rutgers University
     Old Queen's Campus  [note the spelling]
     New Brunswick, NJ 08903

The Sower
Louie/Quean Lutibelle

-- 
  ==========================================================================
  Louie Crew, Assoc. Prof., Academic Foundations Dept., Rutgers U./NWK 07102
  lcrew@andromeda.rutgers.edu                                   201-485-4503
                    Heteroprivilege is against New Jersey law!
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