Editor,
In response to the letter by Isaac Padilla published in the Daily Lobo on Wednesday, I want to say that it is absurd to assume that all white middle-class people feel affirmative action is negative.
For hundreds of years, the African-American family structure was dismantled as a matter of practice. You cannot simply erase these facts. Affirmative action was instated to directly combat this with the hope that the entire American community would be strengthened. My brother was affected by this when he applied for a firefighting job. He said, "It is just the way things go." We are both in favor of affirmative action.
I am tired of being lumped with the white community. I am of Irish descent, and in case you are ignorant of the fact, there was attempted genocide of the Irish by whites. Please stop
trying to define groups of ignorant bigots by their skin color. The stereotype is offensive to me, since the whites tried to wipe out my ancestors. Not to pick on Padilla, but there are many people who make this mistake.
There is something else I would like to mention. Bhavana Upadhyaya, in an article published on Tuesday, said, "I'm not asking for a dictatorial policy, but some balance is required to deter behavior or speech."
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I don't know if she was misquoted or not, but that quote sounds like she wants to regulate free speech. Perhaps the University will create a policy to punish those who try to intentionally or unintentionally subvert our nation. Americans have a constitutional right to free speech. There is no constitutional right to not have your feelings hurt.
Please feel free to say what you want, but do not endeavor to regulate my thoughts and words.
Peter Lynch
UNM student
