Army of me
Even after the back-and-forth in the comments, I think Michael’s being unnecessarily harsh and dismissive toward this Purdue junior. I do take Ace’s point:
That was the part that got me…why would he yield to others to define and direct him as to which group he fits in? I pointed it out to Michael, not to be critical of the author, but because I’d love to believe that no young gay person will ever have to end up like Roy, and that gays–young and old–have so much promise for the future that we should all be grinning like fools, comfortable in our own skin.
Perhaps because I haven’t been e-accosted by the Roy to whom Michael and Ace refer, I don’t see his shadow everywhere.
To me, the letter writer just sounds like a college kid. He’s immature and a bit too ready to inflate a petty campus personality conflict into a cosmic struggle, sure. That’s college life. Graduation cures that for most people. They hit the real world and realize that they’re the same size fish in, suddenly, a WAY bigger pond, and they make the necessary adjustments. It makes no sense to imply that some particular guy who’s barely cracked his 20s might be on his way to a morose, whiny middle age because of a single letter to the editor.
Man, you guys are so easy to tweak!