I am writing in response to the article that appeared in The State News (“Fraternity paints over heritage message on rock,” SN 9/25). After finishing the article I just had to laugh out loud. Is this the kind of material The State News finds newsworthy enough to go Page One? If so, I would like to speak with one of your reporters about how my roommate borrowed my favorite sweater without asking and how I got cheated out of five points on my math quiz.

Please do not get me wrong. I am not trying to make light of Culturas de las Razas Unidas’ celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month. I do respect the importance of the event as well as the groups’ efforts to promote it. What I do not respect is the way the story was written or even that it was written at all. I can understand some members of CRU would be upset that someone else painted over the message that they had taken the time to paint on the rock on Farm Lane. It takes time to paint the rock and, hey, it gets pretty cold on September nights in East Lansing. But one thing that is widely understood by a large percentage of MSU students is that if you are going to paint the rock and you want your work to be there in the morning, there’s a pretty good chance you’re going to have to guard it, too.

I myself have been the victim of “rock repainting” nearly four years ago when I braved the winter cold to paint the rock at 4 a.m. with a group on campus. The next morning? Nothing. “Our” rock was repainted. We were disappointed, sure, but we didn’t blow things out of proportion with a front page story.

The new members of Sigma Alpha Mu were not trying to disrespect Maria Garcia-Mugg or any member of her group. It is more likely that they were just as excited as Garcia-Mugg to spread their message to the MSU community. Again, part of the deal when a group paints the rock is the danger that its work will be painted over. The same thing could have happened to Sigma Alpha Mu - would it have been on the front page? Probably not - reason being that disappointments like this happen all the time, just for quirky reasons and sometimes out of miscommunication. No big deal. What is a big deal, however, is when these quirky disappointments move past editors, escalate to the front page and exemplify slanted opinions. Sheena Harrison, please work on leaving your personal biases and opinions, greek system or otherwise, out of your articles from now on.

Ellen Sciba
English and journalism senior