Apparently, it's now cool to hate.

I think a lot of UMD students don't necessarily realize that The Diamondback has a website, and I'll venture a scientific guess that most of them - whether they know or not - don't bother visiting the page very often.

Let me tell you guys, you're missing a lot of controversy.

One thing I think people don't realize about the good ol' DBK is that they basically allow almost every online comment to remain posted - minus a few. One of the effects is often little battles are fought on comment walls that provide some stunning revelations about the kinds of people on our campus.

Such as our friend "Sean." Please take a minute to read this comment wall.

I find it rather appalling that there are people on this campus (who chose to come here, BTDub) that would have the nards to say this to a gay person:

"When you catch AIDS, and you probably will, that will be the end of this argument."

Well isn't that just dandy?

If the nooses and swastikas were a faceless symbol of hate at Maryland, this guy "Sean" has revealed himself! He's out in the open! He tells gay people that they're going to catch AIDS!

Look, I know as well as anyone else that some people believe that being gay is wrong and will tell gay people that they need to "fight it" or "turn to Jesus." Ok, maybe you're one of those people who just believes being gay is a moral issue, but you leave gay people alone. Good for you! I respect that. But some people have clearly turned the corner between belief and active hatred.

I don't think that anyone at the university should be terribly surprised with everything that's been going on lately, but my question is what have we all done, personally, to encourage understanding, or at least the ability to talk things out in respectful dialogue.

Diversity, whether in skin, culture, or sexual orientation, is something that will exist for many years to come, and how we deal with this issue will reflect on our generation's legacy. Prof. Larry Shinagawa told my class the other day that each generation will have there own view on diversity.

In my mind we have a few choices:

1) Ignore our problems
2) Fight people who are different than us
3) Try and get along as best we can through understanding

You choose.