Don't Forget Our Freedoms

To the Editors of The Crimson:

While reading my paper today, I was shocked to see two references, both made by Harvard students, to the need for a University policy to prevent an incident like the current flag controversy from happening again.

In her letter to the editors, Jacinda Town-send '92 writes: "While I may be sensitive [the reason she gives for taking down the swastika hanging in her window], there are many individuals who are not, and without a policy change we may not be able to "sensitize" the person who hangs the swastika next year, next month or tomorrow."

In addition, in an article about the eat-in protest at Kirkland House. Mecca Nelson '92, president of the Black Students Association, is quoted as calling for "a policy that will prevent this kind of thing in the future."

By making these statements, these students are hurting the very cause that they support. The flyers that I read and the people who called to me in the dining hall to come to the eat-in and show my support for the removal of the Confederate flag all clearly stated that they did not deny the student's right to hang the flag, but rather that they wanted to induce the student to remove it by making her fully aware of its negative connotations. As Jacinda suggests in her letter, it should be removed out of sensitivity to those students whom it offends.

I agree that, out of sensitivity, the flag should be removed; I also believe that people should not make racist remarks. But there is no basis that I am aware of for enacting a policy to prevent these actions. Indeed, there is a basis in the type of society in which we live for not enacting such a policy (one of certain rights and freedoms that we all possess, if they have forgotten).

If those people who advocate such a freedom-limiting policy know of a basis for such a policy, I am anxious to hear about it. Hollie J. Moore '93