I’d like to respond to Maria Del Zoppo’s column in Monday’s State News (“Political correctness is stifling free expression,” SN 7/23).

I’d be more than happy to call you a “liberal-minded lunatic.” You totally misrepresented the Brooklyn Museum of Art incident. No one was arguing against your right to hang that rendition of the Virgin Mary on your cranberry-colored walls, they were arguing that they shouldn’t have to pay for it. Guess what - they’re right. Those people who argued against this work hard for their money and they have a right to say how it’s spent.

Government money comes from taxes and those people paying taxes have a right to say how they’re spent, period. Why is it that you used this as an example and not the South Carolina Confederate flag incident? They happened around the same time and both involved taxpayer monies being spent on something the majority of the people in each area found offensive.

The bottom line is that as taxpayer monies are involved then taxpayers have a right to say how or how not to spend it. And stop twisting things for your own gain.

Bryant Miller
chemical engineering senior