OUT OF PROPORTION
The situation surrounding the rock group Def Leppard has
been blown out of proportion. Joe Elliott’s remark about El Paso was a
mistake, but he should be given the benefit of the doubt.
Everybody makes mistakes and there is no one who can
claim to never have uttered an ethnic slur, whether or not he is a public
figure.
I have never met {LULAC district director} Joe Loya,
but some of the statements he has made in the paper sound very childish
and do not show the standard of maturity one would expect from the district
director of an organization as big as LULAC.
As for the boycott of all Def Leppard albums, concerts,
and the trip Elliott offered—to take two El Pasoans to Europe for a concert—the
trip should be taken in the spirit that it was offered, graciously.
Elliott did not have to apologize or offer the trip.
He could have ignored the situation and not done anything about it.
Speaking of racial slurs, the first article of Inside
El Paso in the Oct. 1st Herald-Post, about the proposal to ban open containers
of alcohol in vehicles, is, I think, more insulting to Hispanics because
it comes from an Hispanic alderman, Alicia Chacon and the president of
LULAC council, both of whom reside in this city.
So before deciding to condemn Elliott for a remark
that was not intended as an insult, why doesn’t LULAC take care of the ethnic
slurs made by its own people?
Barbara Settle,
El Paso