Free speech zone not exempt from federal law

It appears to me that members of the College Democrats and Reach Out do not understand federal voting laws. The law clearly states that you cannot have any signs, where political badges and propaganda, or solicit votes within 100 yards of a voting entrance. It is clear to me and anyone else who walked past the Union on Tuesday that this law was not adhered to.

The reason their signs were taken was simple obedience to the law. Just because the area is designated as free speech does not mean that other federal laws do not apply to the area. If this were the case, why haven’t other areas tried this?

Furthermore, the fact that a member of the administration, namely Wanda Overland, would condone the signs being left up is appalling. This is a blatant disregard for federal law! How can the University tolerate this behavior? Are we above the law because we are a state institution? I think not.

At the very least, some sort of formal discipline should be enacted on her.

As for the bitter democrats who are flooding the pages of the newspaper with discontent, did you fail to listen to Kerry’s concession speech? He asked America to unite for a common purpose. I only hope that we can work together to achieve real progress instead of arguing over free speech in federally prohibited areas.

CHARLES SCHERDT

STUDENT

Bush will not silence liberal values, beliefs

The fight has just begun. Despite John Kerry’s loss to President Bush our battle is not over. In the coming days President Bush will attempt to reach across the aisle and try to close the gap between the left and the right, and I answer this by saying, NO. We will be asked to lay down our arms, and silence our voices, so that America can begin to “heal.” I ask you to remember why we need to heal, what caused the wound that now must be closed. It is the man sitting in the White House and we must not back down. If we silence our dissent then we have lost everything that we have spent the last year fighting for. We may have lost our front man, but we are still a unified voice.

Bush has declared his victory a mandate, and will immediately begin to wage war on OUR values, and on OUR rights. He will try to appoint judges that will take away a woman’s rights. He will continue his Christian conservative agenda and fight gay marriage. He will expand the war in the Middle East requiring our nation’s youth to spill their blood on foreign soil. He will fail to secure our nations ports, fund our schools, or help the impoverished. He will continue to divide this nation.

As liberals, we are painted as weak, soft, and willing to give up by the conservative right. Now has come to prove them wrong.

Now more then ever we must fight, we must call out to our representatives in Congress to block legislation we do not agree with. We must be the voice of dissent whenever possible in this nation. We are a country under attack, by not only terrorism, but by Christian fundamentalists who wish to impose their morals on the nation.

I call on all liberals to fight this administration on every level, protest the moves made in Washington. Fight for the values that we believe in. We are guaranteed the right to pursue life, liberty, and happiness, if we silence our voices now we lose those rights.

SAM ADAMS

STUDENT

Democrats lost more in election than President

As you all know by now, the long awaited election of 2004 is finally over. Now Bush was elected with the popular vote and the electoral vote, there is no debate, four more years of Bush! But this is not the only thing for Democrats to be mad about.

The Democrats lost seats in the Senate and the House of Representatives. The most important loss is Tom Daschle, the minority leader. Daschle was the most senior elected official for the Democrats. This was the first loss by an incumbent leader in the senate since 1952! But are all of these losses the biggest surprise for Democrats?

The biggest surprise was how the Democrat’s plan backfired. Their plan was to get young voters like you and me to vote. Rock the Vote, and the VOTE or Die programs and tried to register voters and put Bush out of office. Rock the Vote came up with a faulty draft scare e-mail to get young voters against Bush, even though Bush clearly is against the draft. Even after the draft bill was shot down in Congress, Rock the Vote would not give in and continued to say that the Congress vote was unfair.

The consensus of most political analysts before the election was that the more voters that came out, the better advantage Democrats had.

All the media was talking about before the election was the curve ball that first time voters would throw into the election. When all these tactics that supposedly would get young people to vote for Kerry were done, their worst fear came true.

Not all young people vote Democrat! What a shock for them to see that their plans backfired. Well at least there is 2008, Democrats!

KYLE KLEMAN

STUDENT

North must follow suit, secede from the union

I write this in response to Adam Murphy’s column, “Second American Civil War” that appeared in yesterday’s BG News. I want him and all others to know that I violently agree with this statement. The ideological separation in the country has in fact broke it in half and I do not feel that mending the deep division is possible.

Therefore, I simply want Adam especially and anybody else interested to read a letter that I have begun sending to our state representatives: Senator Voinovich, District 6 Ohio House representative Latta and State Senator Gardner. I hope that Adam and anybody else who sees the light as clearly as I do now that the fog has lifted from the land, and anybody Conservative who is not fully anchored by the far right of their right wing: the KKK and the racial separatists, will join us in the Northern Secessionist movement:

Dear State Senator Gardner,

Northern secession now! I ask that you fight for northern secession from the United States. It is no longer in our economic or political interests to remain associated with the U.S. We have no voice in the federal government now, and it is clear that the Union is prepared to move forward into the 21st century and that the South is prepared to take us all into darkness. I appeal to your consciousness to look deep within and speculate on the next twenty years and see that the deep division in this country has in fact broke it in half.

There is a dark specter looming to the South and if you fail to see it now and join with our brethren on the East coast, Michigan and the Great Lakes states you will turn a blind eye to that which is already inevitable. Our cousins in the Eastern Coast block are undoubtedly discussing this at this very moment and I plead for you to persuade Ohio to go with them.

The Union rides again!

If you feel this is as true as you say, then go the next step and please send similar letters or this one to your Ohio reps, and please start organizing your soldiers in a timely fashion. Adam, your column is brave and you see the future accurately. I only can hope that you are prepared to deal with the consequence of what you have realized, as the Republicans must now face the consequences that they now see clearly, that they have let their dog of war off its chain in the White House.

WILLIAM DUVALL

BOWLING GREEN

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