To the Editor:

Legality aside — Yale as a landlord may have the “right” to take down banners on its property, but that does not make it right — the removal of Durfee’s “offensive” banner (“Hate sign removed from Durfee Hall,” 10/30) should offend every person who claims to support the First Amendment. Free speech isn’t the right not to be offended or the right to no bad jokes; free speech is free speech, to be combatted with more speech. Angry students should speak out, not tear down: a few loud protests and a few more loud banners just might jar this campus out of its current slumber.

Meanwhile, the News should be more precise with its own language. Calling the banner a “hate sign” and “offensive” smacks of bias.

Sam Frank ’02

October 31, 2001