Concerning the Events Last Friday

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

"Roper: So now you'd give the Devil himself benefit of the law!

"More: Yes. What could you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?

"Roper: I'd cut down every law in England to do that!

"More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned on you-where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country's planted thick with laws from coast to coast-man's laws, not God's-and if you cut them down-and you're just the man to do it-d'you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then?"

Robert Bolt, A Man for All Seasons

The Freedoms of Speech, Press and Assembly along with the legal guarantees to them are the only defenses we have. Even the devil or administrators that promote policies of war must be allowed to speak for everyone's freedom is lessened when one person is denied these essential rights.

If it were not for the expression of opposing views and information one wonders whether those of us who oppose the Vietnam war would even be aware of the facts on which we base our opposition. News blackouts by the government are indeed repressive, yet can any other adjective truthfully be applied to the actions of those that denied the Counter Teach-In speakers their forum? No one forced the audience to attend the meeting Friday night in Sanders Theatre and those who oppose those speakers' view (although the speakers expressed nothing that night) could have picketed the meeting and asked others not to attend, but when they denied the YAF and others of us that wanted to hear the speakers that night, the SDS, the Progressive Labor Party and all the other people that shouted down the program became the oppressors and tyrants.

Those of us that want the war immediately ended need not be afraid of what those men might have said. They could have for example only reiterated the President's untruth about how the ARVN troops were battle proven in Laos which due solely to the freedom of the press we know to be false.

I feel and I think many of my fellow students would agree that those who disrupted the program infringed on the basic rights of speech vital to the freedom of every individual and that such action is morally wrong, politically dangerous and legally unacceptable.