When Karl Rove came to speak at the University of Massachusetts last week, the biggest problem was not his satanic presence, but rather the actions and reactions by many parties involved in the event.

Rove, along with other countless politicians, should be jailed for international war crimes. But unfortunately he is not in jail, which means he has the right to speak at UMass just like everyone else.

The notion to request him not to speak is preposterous. The first amendment allows every single person in this country to speak their mind, despite the inaccuracy, fictitious or deceitful nature of the speech. When freedom of speech begins to apply to only certain individuals, it ceases to exist. The opposition’s first mistake was attempting to disrupt Rove’s freedom of speech.

The next bad move was continuously interrupting Rove’s speech. The acts just made Rove’s opposition look worse. This act especially does not help the situation after Rove said he heard Amherst is an open-minded place. Thanks to the domination of the opposition in the question-and-answer session, many individuals were unable to ask him any pressing questions.

What was most alarming, however, was the overwhelming number of uninformed people in the audience. As I stood in line, one individual was handed an excellent paper compiled by protesters about all of Rove’s wrongdoings. The individual declared the essay too harsh on Rove and said that he just wanted to hear what Rove had to say and did not hold much of a political opinion. His refusal to be informed is what I consider to be the worst problem facing our country today: Americans read the headlines, not the details and complain about political issues without making steps to correct the issues they read about. What a way to fix our problems.

It is unacceptable. As citizens, we have a responsibility to be informed about what is going on in the world. I am tired of explaining what drone strikes are and how companies have a bigger voice than people do in politics. I am tired of people shrugging their shoulders afterward as if the deaths of innocent people abroad are no big deal and believing that what the big corporations do is beyond students. We have to educate ourselves and care about more political issues than just marijuana reform.

The only way to get ahead in any situation is through education; it is why we are all in college right?

Instead of applauding a man using simple and frankly incorrect logic, think about what he is saying and instead of screaming at him because you see his lies, why not formulate an intelligible question and pin him in a corner with it?

— Daniel Diefenbach, UMass student