Privatize Evergreen

I consider myself an open-minded Christian conservative. I do tolerate the presentation of liberalism in various forms. But, like most of society, I value limitations on the more vulgar and disgusting expressions of ideology — left or right.

A good example is that I don't think certain activities at Evergreen State College are appropriate, and I don't think taxpayers should be asked to pay for them.

Having recently completed the grueling task of college application and admissions, I can tell you the names of a few schools I would never attend. Evergreen is one of them.

I first visited Evergreen in seventh grade for a junior-high orchestra festival. I remember carrying my violin past the Evergreen art gallery where the theme of the month was "Feces Art." Toilets, model excrement and quadruple X pornography adorned the walls and floors of the public gallery.

Not long after my horrifying experience on the Evergreen campus, convicted death row cop killer Mumia Abu Jamal was invited to deliver the commencement address at the Evergreen graduation. Interestingly, every year Evergreen has two graduation ceremonies — one normal graduation and one just for minority students, sponsored by the campus Multicultural Center.

On a more recent trip to Evergreen, I attended a seminar as well as the memorial service for Rachel Corrie, an Evergreen student killed after being run over by an Israeli military bulldozer as she stood in its path. The day I was there I witnessed a customary congregation of anti-war protesters, posters heralding the upcoming Evergreen Sex Conference, and "clean" waterless toilets.

A course description for an Evergreen history class called "Dissent, Injustice and the Making of America" says the Founding Fathers built America on "explicit inequality." Another class, called "Inherently Unequal," aligns the conservative movement of the 1950s with racism.

One of Evergreen's many left-wing student groups is the Queer Alliance, a group listed on the Evergreen State College Web site as considerate of at least 12 different sexual orientations, genders or other lifestyles. Included are prostitutes, rubber fetishists, pansexuals, polyamorists, genderqueers, and GLBT. Fortunately, bestiality and incest are off the list for now.

I know there are those who may love feces art, cop killers and rubber. But don't ask the rest of us to pay for it.

For those who wish to label me as intolerant of ideas other than my own, let me make clear that I do not believe Evergreen should be occupied by the National Guard and conquered for the sake of decency.

Yet, despite the controversial nature of activities there, it remains one of six taxpayer-funded state baccalaureate institutions.

Legislators should offer two choices to Evergreen: Clean up your act and remain a state institution, or continue to exalt porn, piercing and perversion and lose state funding. I'd prefer the latter.

Taxpayers have been covering the tab for Evergreen without any compelling reason to do so for years.

Hans Zeiger is a Puyallup High School senior. E-mail: NEXT@seattletimes.com