When you post the tripe you just did. You have basis in logic or reason in making the statements you have and you do not respond intelligently to anything. You need to grow up and get you lips off the tit of PC and religious extremism. No, the world wasn't created in 7 days.

Anon--I am guilty of a mashed sentence when I lumped you in with those asking me to pursue a suit, because those were also the people who thought I should have been very angry at the school district. However, a lawsuit would have not achieved the same ends in my case because we got exactly the policy change we wanted without taking money from taxpayers or students.

I agree that name-calling is not appropriate for any side of a debate. I hope my son would not stoop to it no matter what someone else called him. I don't think that it is appropriate for either side of this case to bash the other in the press: for the DA to malign the boys or for the defense (or friends of the defense) to imply the girl was a hooker.

And when I was referring to name-calling, I wasn't really thinking of your particular letters. You only have to read Ben's letter to me to understand the type I had in mind. I think when uncontrollable anger is introduced to these types of debates, the person making the outburst usually loses credibility. Anger without positive action just eats away at the soul and harms the person feeling the anger much more than the object of that anger.

You are incredibly deluded. Young men, who are normal, go to strip clubs. No, they don't touch the girls. Yes, they put money in their g-strings and watch them shake their ass. Yes, they get horny. No, they don't rape or assault the girls who are stripping. I have been to many a bachelor party with strippers. The girls left intact, without being raped or assaulted at every party, and with the cash they were paid to strip. Can you really be that stupid? Yes, yours is the mindset that elected bush for a 2nd term, even in the face of overwhelming evidence that he is a liar. Same rules apply in this situation. Tell yourself something long enough, no matter how absurd, and you will start believing it. I am sure you are one of the morons who doesn't want sex education in school, doesn't want evolution taught, and wants creationism part of the curriculum in opposition to all scientific, empirical and statistical evidence. Please stay in texas, it is a shit state.

You need to work on your reading comprehension Lonestarsip.

My older son died in 2004 at a school, and despite a few people like yourself who thought I should sue the district, I did not.

At what time did I suggest a lawsuit? Never.

I don't know any of the details of your son's death, and I am sorry for your loss, but I don't think it's the same situation. You and your family did what you felt was best for your situation; others should be afforded the same right, whatever that decision might be.

Besides, it isn't the school that is prosecuting these guys(even though many students and faculty members were only too happy to pronounce their guilt). It's the DA prosecuting them. They could all go to jail for a very long time.

Instead, I wrote them a letter asking them to change their policy. They did, and now their policy will benefit many more people than if I had dragged them to court and saved me and my family a lot of anguish.

Well, I think they would also have changed their policy if they had been taken to court, so it's kind of difficult to determine which scenario would have benefitted more people. Again, even though I never mentioned filing suit, it is important to note that there is nothing wrong with using the courts to effect change in an organization's behavior. That's what they're there for. It's frivolous suits that hurt the system and promote unjust punishments.

Those of you looking in from the sidelines and spitting your vitriol (from both sides) do not have a clue how destructive your anger is.

Now you're just getting kinda preachy.

I don't think name-calling is appropriate from either side. However, indicting someone for a crime is not name-calling.

There are a few different players involved here. The DA indicted them for alleged crimes, but it was the activist students, faculty and others who branded them as racist and rapists. So they got hit from both sides.

If a bunch of frat boys hire a stripper and get drunk, are you seriously telling me they are going to sit on their hands and just watch like good little boys?"

Actually, yes. Who's to say they didn't? It sounds like you're assuming some guilt on their part as well. That's the argument here.

There can also be a middle ground between complete agreement and "I hate women" name-calling.

...or, "all white boys are racist rapists who do not deserve equal protection under the law." And who said anything about hating women?

"Just "relieved"? You wouldn't be upset at the false accusation; at the DA's opportunism; at the bigoted protesters who crucified these guys in the absence of any evidence; at the media circus? You would simply be "relieved"?

I have had experience with anger. My older son died in 2004 at a school, and despite a few people like yourself who thought I should sue the district, I did not. Instead, I wrote them a letter asking them to change their policy. They did, and now their policy will benefit many more people than if I had dragged them to court and saved me and my family a lot of anguish. Those of you looking in from the sidelines and spitting your vitriol (from both sides) do not have a clue how destructive your anger is.

"Isn't branding them as racist rapists tantamount to calling the accuser a "slut and a whore"? Don't the accused deserve the right to be treated with equal dignity? Where is their shame? Because that's the point here."

I don't think name-calling is appropriate from either side. However, indicting someone for a crime is not name-calling.

"Exactly how were they acting? Like the accusations leveled by the stripper, the accusations from other witnesses is equally murky and unsubstantiated. They're nothing but boilerplate....privileged white boys must be misogynistic, racist and classist....insert quote here. Most of them have not been proven either and given the credibility of the accusations so far, I think the accused deserve the benefit of the doubt.

But getting drunk and groping is an age old activity enjoyed by both men and women on just about every campus in the country, if not the world."

Based on your same evidence, athletic frat parties are an age old activity that involve alcohol and trying to get girls drunk so that they can be taken advantage of. If a bunch of frat boys hire a stripper and get drunk, are you seriously telling me they are going to sit on their hands and just watch like good little boys?

Finally, I would not mind if my son had a serious girlfriend and even had sex with said girlfriend and drank a couple of glasses of wine with said girlfriend.

There can be a middle ground between complete monastic exsistence and debauchery. There can also be a middle ground between complete agreement and "I hate women" name-calling.