I think Dwayne Sortor is way off on his attempted defense of free speech ("SN has no right to criticize T-shirts" SN 10/16).

The State News never was calling for the police to haul the sellers off to jail or to have the shirts confiscated.

Freedom of speech is freedom from government censorship. It is not a requirement that others must agree with or even respect everything that a person says.

Those T-shirts clearly are offensive and reflect poorly on MSU.

I am a huge MSU fan who cannot stand the University of Michigan, but when I first saw the design, I was appalled and embarrassed to call myself a Spartan.

The writer is certainly correct that people should be allowed to purchase this material if they choose, but that doesn't make it right.

If I see anybody wearing those shirts around campus or at the game, I certainly will practice my freedom of speech in telling them they have no right to call themselves Spartans for supporting such blatantly homophobic material, and I suggest everyone else who cares about the integrity of our community does the same.

Joseph Blaim
computer science junior