Letters to the Editor

Just turn off KQRS if you're offended

I feel as though I am rehashing an issue that has already gone too far. I simply wish to speak up in defense of the KQRS Morning Show. Don't get me wrong; I feel that the comments made by the members of the show were insensitive and demeaning to a lot of people, especially those in the Hmong community. However, Mike Gelfand is correct in stating that his (and other) comments are protected by the First Amendment.

All members of that show, the Ku Klux Klan, the Moral Majority, the NAACP, the Rev. Fred Phelps, the ACLU and every other man, woman and child in the United States has that right. If people do not like what Tom Barnard is saying, turn off his show. That is the most powerful tool that you have. Simply bitching about the show's formats, characters, and content will do you nothing. In this age, people are way to quick to fly off the handle at whatever seems to be the latest trend.

I am not bashing multiculturalism, but there is a line that needs to be drawn. Likewise, there is a line that needs to be drawn on the other side. Acting on one extreme can only lead to an equally aggressive response from the other extreme. The simplest answer that I can come up with is again to simply turn the channel. I am sorry that peoples' feelings got hurt, but that is how life works, whether you like it or not.

Benjamin Roelofs,senior, College of Liberal Arts

Earth First! does not promote AIDS

The Daily has now widely spread dangerous, simple-minded reactionary lies.

Earth First! is not "highly established" nor an "organization." It is a movement of self-motivated individuals of which I am one. More importantly, Earth First! is by definition nonviolent and puts people and nature over corporate profits and property. The group organizes workers, which is why it has been (and is) illegally attacked by the FBI (as the current lawsuit against the FBI has successfully contended). Promoting AIDS was never part of the Earth First! "agenda." One awful individual's opinion about AIDS made many years ago and never supported by the movement is misused to try to completely warp the group's meaning.

Earth First! has had no ties to Dave Foreman for many years and prominently opposes any environmental racism hinted at by the Sierra Club. Foreman disowned Earth First! because of the movement's intense work promoting social justice.

The group asserts that only 2 percent of original forest ecosystems exist in the United States and that supposed "multiple use" clear-cutting by greedy, job-cutting subsidy-abusing corporations has its limits to life. Five thousand species in the United States are threatened with extinction. Greedy corporations are rapidly destroying the planet (and sustainable livelihoods) at several orders of magnitude faster than any other time in biological history. Wake up.

Drew Hempel,graduate student, liberal studies

Tutoring should be no embarrassment

I have a suggestion for anyone who wishes to comment on a political candidate: Think! In a letter last Friday, Jay Schlechte was denouncing Skip Humphrey for his education.

First, it shouldn't be an embarrassment to seek out tutoring. Even the smartest students could use some help sometimes. Second, Humphrey did pass the bar exam, which is no small feat.

In fact, Humphrey's key platform issue is education. He has an agenda thoroughly planned out concerning education beginning before kindergarten and going through post-secondary schooling.

Does it make any sense to denounce a candidate who graduated from college and passed the bar exam rather than a candidate who only completed one year of college (Jesse Ventura) and is quoted as saying: "Those who are smart enough to go to college ought to be smart enough to figure out how to pay for it?"

Chris Johannes, freshman, General College