Saturday, January 18, 1997
The San Mateo County Times
Editorial Page Editor John Horgan
1080 S. Amphlett Blvd.,
San Mateo, CA 94402-1802

I was stirred by lamentations of one Ellen Williams, who took the trouble recently to note that some "liberals and homosexuals can be so intolerant that they resort to name calling and become so defensive".

This she branded a "tyranny of the few."

Given, (among other things) decades of anti-gay witch-hunts, oppressive legislation, gay bashings, and unabashed campaigns to disenfranchise or actually exterminate gays and lesbians, I do suppose some of us may have become intolerant.

Those of us fortunate enough to be surrounded by supportive friends, family, workplaces, and communities need only to pick up any family newspaper to be reminded that the "real world" has perhaps learned very little in the past 40 years.

Now, our own Cal Thomas, beloved "Prince of Calumny" from that great state of Virginia, regularly writes columns filled with the most dreadfully hackneyed and unimaginitive name-calling about the so-called "homosexual agenda", and other great leaps of hate.

We hear so much about the "tyranny of the few", and so little about how it works.

Let's say we want to conspire to deprive 10 or 20 million Americans of basic rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That's "unlimited majority rule".

If that's our belief, we do have a Constitutional right to "hide behind our religion".

Now, let's say a handful of people have the timerity to hold up progress, by invoking Constitutional rights which say we can't do this. That's "hiding behind their rights", also known as the "tyranny of the few".

Do Americans really believe their "rights" depend on being able to deprive others of theirs?

(This letter was published Friday, February 14th, 1997. It was edited by the newspaper for publication, but their editor did a better job of editing than I. Reversing our usual policy, the edited letter is republished here. - ALF)