Why is it when the ISU Boxing Club demonstrates how to deliver a proper right-left combination no one cries assault?

Why is it when two hockey players perform the signature stick-and-glove toss and light into one another, we applaud and say it makes the game good?

Why is it our society condones and even encourages so many forms of violence and assault in our sports, and yet cannot accept a BDSM group because of the actions they take?

Our thinking is a little backward and oxymoronic, don’t you think? It’s simple, really — Cuffs didn’t commit any wrong.

The members are completely consensual, and, under the provisions of the First Amendment to our United States Constitution, have the right to freedom of expression.

If Cuffs members choose to express themselves through bondage and sadomasochism, who are we to say they are wrong?

Who are we to say they don’t have the same rights as the boxer or the hockey player? This was never an issue of assault — it’s an issue of naivete and being afraid of the unknown. Those who cried assault in the first place are the ones who neither understand nor appreciate that which Cuffs stands for.

It’s more than just a BDSM group. Cuffs challenges the status quo, forces people to be more open, to expand their horizons.

Cuffs is the next step in tolerance and acceptance of those with unlike interests than yourself. I am saddened by the actions of our university. The ruling on the Cuffs assault charge only helped to fuel those who don’t wish to be open-minded, making a solid base for the status quo and continuing to allow for the suppression of freedom of expression.

So at least be fair, Iowa State. If you want to charge Cuffs with assault go ahead. But in tomorrow’s Daily, I expect to read you have also charged the ISU Boxing Club, the ISU hockey team, the ISU Rugby Club, and the other numerous organizations on this campus that perform “dangerous” actions such as which you have just found Cuffs guilty of.

Grace Kole

Freshmen

Undeclared