Social ignorance

To the Editor: I have read the letters to the editor in the past few issues of ASME NEWS in amazement at how socially ignorant engineers can be. While it's no secret that engineering is typically the last of the major professions to accept social change, through each and every successive minority group's fight for equality, I was nonetheless shocked to see some of the letters written regarding ASME's support of the Boy Scouts of America.

To me, still more disturbing than watching the young Arab boys chant hateful slogans in Osama bin Laden's propaganda videos was experiencing firsthand the hateful words of normal, red-blooded American boys during the Boy Scouts' "Order of the Arrow" conference, while I was an engineering student at the University of Tennessee. Teaching young people militancy and hate is wrong in any religion, and in any nation. If ASME truly does have the best interest of America's youth in mind, then supporting the Boy Scouts of America is the wrong decision.

Yet, unlike others who have written, I am not about to threaten canceling my membership in ASME over this issue. Fortunately, I know, as do other young engineering graduates and students, that time is on our side. No matter how poor the decisions made today by ASME leadership and members may be, those of us who value diversity will eventually lead the organization and can reverse such mistakes. I only hope that our patience will last longer than the ignorance of those supporting unjust discrimination.

Rob Power
San Francisco

back to columns