Letters

ROTC injustice

Editor:

Regarding the dismissal of Cadet Huong Nguyen from UCLA’s
Reserve Office Training Corps (ROTC) program for proclaiming her
bisexuality: It’s outrageous that in this day and age such a thing
could happen.

Why does the university, which has been on the cutting edge of
knowledge and progressive thinking in matters of human sexuality,
provide a venue for an activity that discriminates against one of
its students?

The military policy of cashiering gays, lesbians and bisexuals
flies in the face of all that is right and decent, and especially
the very tenets on which the country that it proclaims to defend is
based on, namely "equal justice under the law."

UCLA should demand that the ROTC get with the program, or to use
the Pentagon’s very words, "disestablish" the activity.

Joseph Gius

Los Angeles

Double standard

Editor:

Hi. After over a year of faithful service as the cartoonists of
"Stick," we finally felt the need to come out of our box in
response to Roxane Márquez’s Feb. 1 column, "Reality of our
lives."

We agree completely with Márquez that college publications,
and especially the Viewpoint section, are invaluable resources in
allowing students to voice their opinions; no matter how unpopular
they might be.

This is one of the last forums where freedom of speech can truly
exist – protected by students who are unaffected by monetary
concerns, overbearing advertisers or the fear of offending someone.
(As Márquez says, "And if it offends you … well, good.")

We only wish that the Daily Bruin’s actions could speak as
strongly as the editor in chief’s words. Unknown to most Bruin
readers, our comic was censored recently by the editors. While we
recognize The Bruin’s right to run its publication as it pleases,
it is blatantly hypocritical to publicly defend the same values
which are being disregarded behind closed doors.

"Go ahead, speak," writes Márquez, "We’ll give you the
forum." Unfortunately, we were denied that forum for a comic which
the editors considered to be "borderline offensive."

Márquez’s attack on censorship is admirable. We hope the
future polices of the Daily Bruin will be equally admirable.

Aaron Saffa

Fourth-year

Sociology

David Sloves

Fourth-year

Communication studiesComments to
[email protected]