Editor,
If burning a cross on someone's lawn, burning the U.S. flag and walking around a courthouse with "Fuck the draft" written across your chest is considered free speech, then how can the same University that taught me the importance of a person's First Amendment rights be pursuing a hate crime against someone who exercised his constitutional right by tearing down a flag?
I think people and groups should expect U.S. citizens to feel sensitive about patriotism in light of what our country is currently involved in. The Mexican Student Association has to bear some responsibility along with Peter Lynch. While I understand the University's mission is to attract people from all walks of life and from diverse backgrounds with multitudes of beliefs, I don't see how it will attract these folks if they cannot find liberty to express their ideas without being charged with a hate crime. At the same time, students and their families need to know that they will be protected if they feel threatened, belittled or treated as less than human.
There are, I hope, policies setting the University's limits. But a hate crime? For the University to search for any link of racism in Lynch's act is outrageous. If his posting in a forum where everyone mouths off about everything and anything was in conjunction with his actions, and he meant to cause a riot or cause a multitude to jump to action, then perhaps it would be a hate crime. As an American Indian from Alaska, I don't condone hatred any more than the next guy, but I would defend someone's right to believe what they want to and speak what they feel as long as, of course, it doesn't amount to what the law will not tolerate. If this case goes all the way to the Supreme Court, who will win?
Karole Kohl
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