I'm a little confused when I see The State News flooded by the same false information repeated by four different people — many of which a simple Facebook search will show are all white males engaged in some way with the group Young Americans for Freedom, or YAF.

It's an organization that is ultra-conservative and has repeatedly expressed racist views. They are champions at twisting words and misinforming the public, and now they want you to believe that they are free speech martyrs when just weeks ago they were trying to get a State News boycott going for employing that same free speech.

Here are the facts — none of the bills presented at the joint ASMSU, the MSU undergraduate student government, and Residence Halls Association meeting had been seen before that day, and the bill condemning the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, or MCRI, had not been added to the agenda because the chairs for the meeting wanted the representatives to decide if it was something worth debating.

And debate it they did — for almost as long as all the other four bills combined. A decision from last year was upheld that only representatives could speak, but people like Craig Burgers ("Representative didn't consult constituents" SN 01/10) had just as much opportunity to speak as anyone else.

Then the matter was voted on — democratically — according to the standing rules of order for the joint meeting, and the bill decisively passed all three branches of government meeting that night.

Nothing about the MCRI is fair or honest — what is fair and honest is the fact that the student government at MSU will refuse to take a part in racism.

Erik Green
English senior