To the Editor:
It seems yet again the majority has attempted to trample the rights of the minority. In this case, the minority appears to be four girls heading a club with limited funding. The majority appears to be four of the largest student groups at UM, four groups representing immense resources, including, but not limited to, actual UM-funded offices.
COISO, FEC, SpectrUM and UBS all blockaded the Breezeway Wednesday in protest to a small student group, Advocates for Conservative Thought [ACT]. ACT, it turns out, had planned to carry out a bake sale to protest affirmative action. Asians and whites would be charged more per cookie than blacks and other minorities. Personally, I find such a bake sale offensive. Then again, I suspect ACT would say that proves their point. While I recognize the metaphor inherent in ACT’s bake sale, that affirmative action is just as racist as their bake sale, I didn’t see the metaphor in that of the protestors. The head of UBS said, “More people show up when you give out free stuff.” I guess free cupcakes count for arguments nowadays.
Yet why did the four groups protest Wednesday, when the bake sale occurred Friday? According to UBS, a member of one of the four groups had joined ACT with the express purpose of keeping tabs on this group, leading protesters to believe the bake sale would occur Wednesday. Having also spoken with one of the presidents of ACT, this form of espionage makes me wonder how small a minority ACT really is. It would be doubly ironic if half the conservative group were actually composed of these “sleeper agents.” According to ACT, the Friday bake sale was scheduled for Wednesday, but a lack of volunteers killed the idea. I wonder…
Do I agree with ACT? Not really. Still, their free speech is their free speech. Do I agree with COISO, FEC, SpectrUM and UBS? Maybe on an ideological level, but then again, their clear disdain for a minority party in this interchange indicates a level of hypocrisy that might have me rethinking my political stance.
Name Withheld By Request