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Editorial from the Cape Cod Times, May 8, 2002 Remember
the days when you could speak your mind, when there was no such thing
as political correctness?
Remember the time when you could tell ethnic jokes without being
called a racist?
Turns out the sun has not completely set on those simpler, less
"sensitive" days.
They returned for a fleeting moment on a baseball field in
Provincetown on April 25.
A visiting team volunteer "lisped" homophobic remarks to
the Provincetown High School baseball team.
Nicola Nasuti, a volunteer with South Shore Christian Academy in
Weymouth, "spoke his mind" and unleashed some slurs just as
players gathered for the customary postgame handshakes.
Reminds us of the hot summer days when angry white men shouted
epithets as black people marched in Alabama in the 1960s.
We've come a long way since then, but gay and straight athletes in
Provincetown are still haunted by hate.
Seventeen-year-old Evan White, a baseball player, says hostile
remarks are routinely aimed at Provincetown athletes. As a basketball,
soccer and baseball player, White has learned to tune out insensitive
barbs.
"Provincetown's young people have historically had a rough
road when traveling and competing in sports," said Scott
Fitzmaurice, executive director of the Cape & Islands Gay and
Straight Youth Alliance in Barnstable. "It hurts for them to be
labeled."
That's one reason Provincetown enacted a hate crimes resolution in
1992. The resolution states the town will not tolerate hate crimes and
would prosecute violators to the fullest extent of the law.
There are those who think hate crime resolutions are unnecessary,
that they are too politically correct.
It's quite possible, however, that if Provincetown coaches and
police turned a deaf ear to the offensive language, Nasuti would still
be volunteering for the school.
Because they refused to tolerate such hate, South Shore Christian
Academy administrator Frank Rydwansky asked Nasuti not to return to
the team.
On the other side of the diamond, "Coach of the Year"
award should go to Provincetown's John White, who taught his players
something much more important than how to field a double play.
When the incident escalated, White immediately removed his players
from the area to defuse a potentially explosive situation.
He then called a team meeting and told them there would be
consequences to such irresponsible behavior.
"It's just so sad when any leader of a school is not
sensitized properly," Fitzmaurice said. "It just means we
have a long ways to go to break down ignorance."
Meanwhile, Nasuti denies the accusations and calls those involved
"hyper-sensitive."
Apparently, Nasuti is still living in the days that tolerated hate.
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