‘Stupid Nickname’ Breeds Devilish Acts

Dana Parsons starts his column (“There’s a Nickname for Those Afraid of a Devil Mascot,” April 2) talking about a 14-year-old who shot a 17-year-old. This is becoming a rather scary common occurrence that bothers everyone, and I would hope Mr. Parsons, too.

However, he then spends the rest of his article (writing) about Mission Viejo High School’s name of Diablos, which is Spanish for devils (and resulted in) caricatures of devils appearing on T-shirts being worn by some of the students. He then goes on trying to justify his way of thinking that it’s OK by stating, “I think the point I’m really trying to make is, IT’S JUST A STUPID NICKNAME!” He doesn’t even understand the basic problem!

I was inclined to ask Mr. Parsons whether, as long as he saw nothing wrong in allowing T-shirts of devils at Mission Viejo High School, then he surely couldn’t object to allowing a moment of silence for prayer at the school.

However, I want to take a look at this in another direction. What he refers to as a supposedly insignificant problem is actually the very serious first step. Whatever anyone does starts with a thought, and continues with the first step. Some students have already had the thought and taken the first step toward the devil. Then comes the second step. As more students take this direction, they’ll form a Devil’s Gang. The next step is they’ll have to get guns because they’ve been threatened by Hell’s Gang. This, of course, will lead to the next step, which will be a shooting between gang members, some of whom will get shot, as well as some innocent bystanders. Sound familiar? It should.

But all is not lost. Now Mr. Parsons will be able to come back with another article on all the new gang violence happening in Mission Viejo, and he’ll be asking how such things could ever get started? He might start by looking at the “stupid devil nickname.”

GENE HUSTING

Costa Mesa