On any given day, people are bombarded by the multitude of signs, fliers and chalkings advertising many of MSU’s diverse campus organizations, and clubs.

These advertisements allow organizations to reach out to students and the MSU community and, in turn, allow students to find their “niche” within the university.

When my peers and I decided to put up fliers and signs as a way to attract new members and inform the MSU community about our organization, Students for Choice, we were hoping to send out a message about our organization.

Knowing MSU is a place where diversity and acceptance thrive, we were confident our views would be tolerated.

We were wrong.

Instead, our fliers and signs were torn down, desecrated and thrown on the street by people that did not accept our views and were mostly likely from the organization with the opposite view.

Some of our members now feel slightly intimidated to even put up any more signs or publicly express our views.

What infuriated us the most is that we were not given a chance to exercise our First Amendment rights by allowing us to post signs that advertised what type of organization we are.

When our signs were torn down, it felt as if we had no voice on campus.

We had not done anything wrong. In no way were our signs offensive, nor did we tear down any of our opposition’s signs, posters or chalkings.

I feel that it is necessary to inform the MSU community that to tear down a poster, spitting on a chalking or harassing members of a particular organization is clear intimidation.

I urge our detractors to not tear down any poster from any organization on campus. Even if you are so vehemently against where a particular group stands, it does not give you the right to infringe on someone’s First Amendment rights.

If your message is strong and good, then it should be able to withstand the challenge of other messages.

Let your voice be heard, but you have no right snuff out others’ voices.

Jay Khandekar
economics junior