While I agree with The State News (”Our Voice” SN, 1/9) that President Clinton’s visit to campus Tuesday brought honor and positive attention to MSU, more attention must be paid to the denial of citizens’ constitutional right to free speech that coincided with this visit.

First, the order that no signs be allowed into Breslin Student Events Center, enforced by security at the entrances, is a denial of an American citizen’s right to free speech. This denial of our constitutional right becomes still further appalling when one considers that the only signs made by students permitted into Breslin Center were those with messages pre-approved by the White House. Of course, these pre-approved signs had no political messages. These signs had messages only along the lines of “Thank you” or “We love you Bill.”

Student signs that were not the least bit offensive in nature but that did have a political message were denied pre-approval for entry into Breslin Center. One such sign read “Save the ANWR” (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge) on one side and “Thanks Bill for the Tongass!” on the other. The reason for this denial was that they did not match the White House’s desired media message of Clinton saying thank you to his faithful Michigan supporters, a member of the White House staff told me. Also, “Thank you”and “Progress, Prosperity, Promise” posters were distributed to citizens already inside Breslin Center. One could see that many exceptions to the no sign rule were made, but only for those signs that agreed with the desired media message.

Everyone should be aware that citizens of the United States of America were served a deep injustice by having our right to free speech denied Tuesday at Breslin Center.

Liisa Bergmann

environmental policy sophomore