Dear editor:

Personally, I am quite tired of hearing several members of the UMass Republican Club repeat the phrase “real men protect children” in defense of their embarrassingly petty and irrelevant protest.

If it’s really “that simple,” what exactly is the UMass Republican Club doing to protect children? Thousands of children suffer abuse and neglect every year in Massachusetts alone, one in every six hundred children will develop cancer before the age of fifteen, and several hundred children are killed every year by drunk drivers.

Yet somehow, these issues have been overlooked by the “real men” of the UMass Republican Club. They aren’t volunteering at shelters, raising money for hospitals or educating the public about the dangers of drunk driving.

Under the guise of protecting children, they are simply looking for attention and attempting to salvage what is left of their crumbling student organization, driven into the ground by Mr. DeFlumeri and his hypocritical debauchery.

Let’s face it: the only children these members of the UMass Republican Club have protected all year are themselves.

Kasara Martin UMass Student

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Dear editor:

Re: “The RSU speaks out,” Radical Student Union, Ed/Op, Mar. 4, 2008.

As a liberal I am an ardent advocate of free and unfettered speech, moreso than most people, and someone who thinks sexual education is important. Yet I find what the RSU is doing irresponsible and reactionary.

Young children go through the student union all the time, tour guides bring prospective students and their families through it, yet they claim it is due to “homophobia and racism” that the brochure is being taken down. It is obvious to most people that this is not the case.

The administration is fighting allegations of UMass as a crazy party school and they (for obvious reasons) do not want pictures of two guys doing it in one of the most travelled places on campus. Since they control the space they get to say what goes, because contrary to what the RSU may believe the University is, in fact, owned by the state and managed by the administration, not them.

Sure, the current Republican Club is the last group that should be making charges of indecency, but regardless, the responsible, adult thing to do would be to take the brochures, which the RSU failed to do.

The RSU needs to get over itself.

Derek A Newhall UMass student