The Pagan Student Association
responded to allegations that they were responsible for anti-Christian
remarks painted in the Rivers Street tunnels during the second
week in October.
PSA President K. Hope Butler said the organization had nothing
to do with the offensive remarks in the tunnel.
“We are a multicultural club … we aren’t
anti-Christian … we are interested in religion in general
and how it affects the world,” Butler said.
“We are just as upset as everyone else. We were the
ones who painted over those remarks because they offended
us as well,” PSA member Ashleigh E. Rockett, a freshman
education major, said.
PSA claims to have painted Halloween greetings over the offensive
writings and slogans such as “Hate is not a Pagan value.”
“We want to dispel misconceptions that people have
about PSA. We are a group and that makes us an easy target
… hopefully people will start realizing what we are
really all about and misconceptions will stop,” Butler
said.
“We respect others’ beliefs, but we don’t
necessarily have to agree with them … we agree to disagree,”
PSA Vice President Katrina L. Sharp said. Sharp said PSA
has members from many different faiths and most of the organization’s
meetings are based around discussions on different views
and beliefs.
Although the club is diverse, one common ground is polytheism,
or the belief in many gods, Sharp said.
“We do believe in good and evil and that everybody
has a choice in the decisions that they make,” PSA
Treasurer Gabe Tatum said. Everybody has a personal responsibility
for what they do and for the consequences that come from
their actions, Butler said.
Senior special education major Ira J. Woodring was one student
upset by the writings in the tunnel.
Woodring’s letter to the editor, published Oct. 16
in The Appalachian, responded to the remarks in the tunnel,
blaming PSA for the remarks.
“I didn’t want to blame them because I had misconceptions
about who they are, I blamed them because [the graffiti]
appeared the same night that they painted the tunnel,”
Woodring said. “I made a mistake in assuming they wrote
it … and I’m sorry if I accused anybody who didn’t
do it.”
Woodring said he wrote the letter so whoever did paint the
remarks would read it and know how upset the paintings made
him.
According to the Appalachian State University’s tunnel
painting policy, content of messages painted in tunnels are
not restricted by the university. Only physical vandalism
or defacement is prohibited, such as painting on the railings
or damaging the steps. |
