written with hope on December 15, 1996 that one day 
homophobia will end and the LGBA/homosexuality debate will 
be resolved at GC, and that vigils will not be necessary.

Vigilantes at the Opinion Board
-with credit to Tim for the term "vigilante"

	Friday after convo, Tim Godshall, Laura Schildt, and I 
got to talking about the homosexuality debate that had been 
raging on the opinion board, in the Record, and the opinion 
board had been burnt (or 2/3 of the articles) over 
Thanksgiving Break between 3:30-4:30am.  Tim mentioned that 
he had taken down a hateful message the night before after 
his latenight something close to: "I hate faggots, Kill 'em 
all!".  That would be the worst thing that I'd ever seen up 
there (if I'd have seen it).  Well we talked so much that I 
was late for my 11am SCC shift...  Later at lunch we and 
some other Paxers ended up spending a long amount of time 
discussing the matter (I was there from 12:30ish to 2 ish).
	After some talking and almost not doing anything: Tim, 
Jeff (Miller), Anne (Horst), and I set-off to seek wisdom 
from faculty and staff of GC who would know the history of 
the debate and perhaps have advice on what we should/could 
do to make it more meaningful.  Tim grabbed a stack of 
cookies on the way out to give as gifts.
	First we went to see Keith (GM) whose classes were over 
and he would soon be off to lead SST.  We sat on the floor 
in his office, joking about a sit-in.  Anne tended to 
explain our purpose to the people we went to talk to.  We 
all took notes at various points in our meetings.  We had a 
good discussion with him, he was agreeable with the vigil 
idea, and really encouraged us to reach out to conservatives 
so as to start a greater more inclusive dialouge.
	Next we went to see Ruth Krall, who unfortunately had a 
grant proposal to finish that afternoon and was interested 
but very busy.
	Jeff left us to go to class at this point for some 
reason.
	Then, on her recommendation, we went to seem Norm 
Kauffman.  He was overjoyed to see us and said that our 
coming to him, was the best Christmas present he could get.  
He was quite diplomatic (recommending people we should talk 
to), and we decided that we'd do a lunch with him, Senate, 
some faculty, before the end of the term to figure out what 
to do (we still haven't done this yet unfortunately).
	Finally we went to see Anne Berry (after searching 
campus until we found her at her small group home, napping) 
who is Senate president (and she has "her cabinet" who 
assists her).  She was very interested in working together 
with us on the issue.
	Sometime before seeing Anne Berry, we decided to hold 
an impromptu PAX meeting at 10pm (on a friday night!) in the 
Union.  From that point on whenever we met someone in PAX we 
told them about the meeting (code word: m10u).
	That evening, Jeremy Garber did his Senior Theater 
Recital that was a play humourously discussing the 
relationship between a heterosexual woman and a bisexual man 
(both who had psychiatrists).  That play set a totally 
different tone then our discussions had been going (it was a 
good play, just weird).  After the recital, about 13 people 
(mostly PAX) met at the Union for a long time.  We talked 
and talked, drew up the basis for a statement, and decided 
to do the simple, unrealistic, crazy: Opinion Board Vigil 
(credit: Tim's idea).
	It started that night at midnight.  Tim doing his first 
of three 12-8am shifts.  We painted Paxie brown (for the 
Mariott madness campaign that still has taken off, but might 
on Monday) and then painstakingly (or slowly) drafted a 
statement: A call for Peace to explain our goals on the 
board.  I typed it up around 3ish am.  Nat Jordan dropped by 
around 4am and planned to sleep there.  He and Tim played a 
strategy push opponents' pieces off the board game that 
wasn't over and I finally left a bit before five.  I got to 
bed by five that night.
	We did long shifts.  I put in one Saturday night from 
6:30pm to past midnight when Lucinda came on.  I sat in a 
chair for about 5.5 hours without getting up, talked to some 
people, good experience.  Anne did one that morning, Scott 
one in the afternoon.  I got to see the people coming back 
from Wonderful Mystery.  I stayed up that night til 5am as 
well, saw my first falling stars, stargazing in witmer 
woods, getting into a wacky debate with Tim Kennel at wee 
hours of the morning.
	All in all I estimated that I spent about 20 hours by 
the board (Tim claims 36, including 3 8 hours shifts).  That 
Sunday night we had a little hymn sing with Tim, Brooke, 
Anne, Matt Pongracz, Ryan (from Kenyon St. DC), and myself 
to around 3ish am.  I got to bed by 4am that night (that 
makes 5, 5, 4, and then I think 3am on Monday night).  The 
hymn sing was great!  We also had couches (2) taken from the 
union lounge, had a failed couch race, got a bit worried 
that Charlie (security) would say something about us, but he 
didn't.  With a stereo, oreos, couches, etc, we had parties 
up by the board at night!
	We had our first gap in the vigil that Monday morning 
(we had gone 56 hours without a single gap in someone being 
there or in the bathroom).  Chad was the other person to do 
a 12-8 shift that Tuesday night.  We decided to end on Wed 
after chapel with a service.  I put up some last minute 
advertising on the door that enters the Union from the South 
(for everyone coming back from Chapel).  there's no 
advertisment, like last minute advertisement, like 
advertisement that goes against the rules for putting them 
up, like BIG advertisement.  We had a small group of 
students after chapel (maybe 30).  I didn't say anything.  
Chad, Anne, Tim, and Amy talked, with Sylvia Shirk Charles 
giving a wonderful prayer.  We also sang a song of healing 
that fit very well (Austin guitar).  Anne and Tim talked 
about sitting by the board.  Chad did an intro.
	From that day on, I've occasionally stopped by the 
board, because I've been there so long and before I would 
have had a friend to talk to there.  Useful that.
	Some discouraged us by saying we were intimidating.  I 
don't think we intimidated too much as many opinions were 
posted.  Most people were supportive.  People like Lucinda, 
Scott, came out of the woodwork and volunteered large 
segments of time without any prior association with Pax.  We 
were a presence.  I got to talk to many people about 
homosexuality and other issues and this was very useful.  We 
kept a log of some of our conversations...  One thing that 
wasn't nice was that someone put up a hateful homophobic 
message on the travel board when we were doing the vigil 
(what can we do if someone would be so dedicated as to 
spread hate wherever they can?).
	Today I just read David Lapp's paper on the LGBA and GC 
and it was very informative (and only 96 pages).  It should 
be a requirement to join the debate.