What happened to pluralism, reason?

I was in shock and awe when I read the front page story in the March 31 Herald about the Snohomish High School senior who was suspended for refusing to remove a T-shirt with the adjudged offensive term “Snohos” printed across the front. The story informed the reader that school administrators saw the term as derogatory to women. Apparently “ho” as in “Snoho” is one thing, but in the plural form the eye of the beholder counts. Might this administrative action serve as a precedent for the larger community of Snohomish such that come Christmas Santa Claus will have to limit his “Ho Ho’s” to one?

I really thought this nation was committed to a philosophy of pluralism. I do know for a fact that school administrators in Piscataway, N.J. do not think the name of their community is offensive to cats. Nor do they seem especially perturbed that Piscataway is located in Middlesex County, where no one has proposed legislation to outlaw marriage. But while pluralism is not the issue there, it is al-together probable that the ubiquitous eye of the beholder lurks about in an administrative office waiting to do for cats there what Snoho administrators are doing for women here. Whatever became of the faculty of reason?

David N. Houghtaling

Everett