Dear Editor:

Mr. Blackburn responded to my criticism of his letter in the East Tennessean’s Oct. 27 issue.

I only want to provide context for a few of his counterpoints:

For one, not once in my letter did I characterize him as “ignorant and irrational”; I did refer to his thinking as naive, but that’s a big jump to make to me attacking his personal character. 

On that note, the point of a debate, Mr. Blackburn, is that I don’t actually have to meet you in person for any reason.

I can argue with your words and you are free to argue with mine. For more information, please take Argumentation and Debate 1020 next semester.

Secondly, please understand that you are not the campus martyr for conservatism.

Blackburn is obviously an opinionated young man and I respect that, but he takes too much of the burden of this false dichotomy he’s built on himself. I daresay he sounds rather defensive. No one is asking him to make any “concessions” in his argument. Again, Debate 101.

Lastly, I too will hold my ground, and that is that Blackburn is arguing falsely and erroneously.

As a female, it does me no good to uphold the values of “generations prior” for obvious (and not so obvious, perhaps) reasons.

I ask, are you going to argue with the “Sex Matters” column as well for daring to provide useful sexual information for (hopefully) mature readers?

Do you get this apoplectic in English class? Are you going to start funding useful sexual education in middle and high school or would you rather we all run around ignorant?

Look up some charts, look up some facts, and again: Learn.

— Elizabeth Young

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