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Small town mentally breeds ignorance

I want to leave this town.

After nearly four years in Bloomsburg, I've seen, heard and smelled everything that I've ever wanted to see. And frankly, things that I've heard and read lately have made me even more eager to get out of Bloomsburg.

The cross and Carver bells situations stirred up significant controversy on campus. A good, mainly intelligent debate began about the separation of church and state, religious sensitivity, and the true message that all of this is sending. These discussions didn't bother me as much as what I've read in the Press Enterprise in recent weeks since the cross and bells incidents.

If I didn't know better, I'd think I was in Nazi Germany with all the anti-Semitic letters and "30 seconds" calls that were printed in the Press Enterprise. The readers of the Press Enterprise certainly showed their ignorance and lack of culture with the barrage of hateful comments directed at Dr. Walter Brasch, who brought the whole cross controversy to the forefront. They've also berated President Jessica Kozloff and the university community for succumbing to these minority voices.

The majority of the people say that there isn't a problem having crosses on a public university campus and that there isn't a problem having religious music played by the Carver bells. I suppose I can't blame these people for their opinions. They do, after all, live in Bloomsburg.

That's not a shot at the town itself. Bloomsburg University provides a significant amount of culture for its students as well as the surrounding community. If people in the community were interested in learning about other cultures, Bloomsburg University would certainly be the place to come. While we aren't the most diverse university in the world, or even in the state, the university strives to provide many different cultural activities for many different people.

But take the university away and what do we have? Rural America. Rural America isn't a bad thing per se, but it does have the tendency to limit one's cultural perspective and to close one's mind. Unfortunately, the majority of the town suffers from both of these shortcomings.

As a de facto resident of Bloomsburg, I cringe every time I see a headline on a letter in the Press Enterprise that shows its readers lack of cultural diversity. "Jews want to dominate the world" was the headline given to a letter Edward Gosciminski wrote for the Nov. 14 Press Enterprise. He said that Kozloff was trying to create a Gestapo by banning religious music from the Carver bell tower. Apparently, Gosciminski has lived in a small town way too long. His lack of culture was very apparent in his anti-Semitic and shortsighted letter.

I can't completely fault him though. Gosciminski, unlike the majority of his peers, spoke up and voiced his opinion. He didn't just mumble under his breath or talk about it in the privacy of his own home with friends. He made his opinions heard and he put his name on something that he believed in. That is very rare in this society and if nothing else, he should be commended for speaking up when others just kept to themselves.

Around campus and the town, I often hear students, faculty, and staff alike complaining to each other. Many people weren't happy about the cross controversy or taking the religious music off the Carver hall bells. Did they speak up and write a letter to the paper or did they make their opinion known? A few did, but most people just went along, continuing to be unhappy and didn't try to change a thing. Some people were in the minority and weren't confident enough to express that opinion. Others were in the majority but didn't think that they should be and didn't want to express their opinion. Some people are just too worried about what others will think of them so they didn't say anything. Whatever way you look at it, the end result is the same -- next to no one spoke up.

Every week, I put my name and face on my opinion with my column. Some people agree with me -- others don't -- but that's really not the point. I take a stand every week and put myself out for the dogs to feed upon. I don't always have the popular opinion, but I do have an opinion nonetheless. With every word of my column each week, I've taken a chance and voiced my opinion. In that sense, I am always in the minority.

I've talked about the CGA, BUPD having guns, and the controversy with the crosses, among other things. Yet, more times than not, The Voice has not received a single letter to the editor. I find it hard to believe that people don't have an opinion on such controversial topics. What they do have is a lot of water cooler talk. People sit around in their dorm rooms or in bars and talk about this stuff, but they rarely make their opinion heard when anyone else is listening. They're too enamored with their own limited cultural perspective to ever express their opinions. But who can blame them really? They live in Bloomsburg.