Letter: Government not to thank for freedoms

Editor,

I would like to respond to Tuesday's editorial, "Newspaper closing prompts questions." While it is unfortunate that Stetson University's student newspaper, The Reporter, was shut down, I disagreed with your take on the "real issue."

While I respected the spirit of the piece, one statement was troubling: "As Americans we pride ourselves on these freedoms that our government has taken upon itself to protect and our troops at this very moment are fighting in Iraq to preserve."

If you will remember, the premise of "Operation Iraqi Freedom" is not to protect the First Amendment. The premise is that Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction, which, by the way, the United States government gave/sold to Iraq in the '80s after Iran took American citizens hostage.

Also, saying our government protects our freedoms is a little questionable. It is the vigilance of journalists that protects our first amendment rights, not an expensive, preempted foreign war and not politicians.

Jessica C. Carr

UNM student