Friday, for those of you who may have been snowed in, was Free Speech Day on campus.

All kinds of people from all walks of life came out to the Richardson Court Association courtyard to exercise their freedoms of speech on a rain-slicked stage. GSB senators, LGBTAA activists, a student from an English class who had a beef with Nintendo makers, two students who think food service sucks and even a Daily editor in chief braved the wind and snow to spout off about what’s important to us.

One of the things I spoke on at Free Speech Day was the importance of public discourse. We can’t solve problems in society unless we talk about them, plain and simple. And I believe that if we get our differences out in the open, we’ll discuss our way to some solutions.

So let’s discuss some letters to the editor.

During the past week, a whole bunch of people have written in to the Daily criticizing the publication of a picture of a drag queen and a picture of two guys kissing. These photographs appeared in the same day’s paper, and some people just couldn’t stomach it, so they wanted to let us know.

From a freedom-of-speech standpoint, I have to applaud last week’s letter writers. They were exercising their rights, and that’s terrific.

So now that you’ve had your say, here’s mine.

If you didn’t like the pictures in the April 3 Daily, I’m sorry. But I think you missed the point.

Those pictures weren’t there to shock ISU students. They weren’t there to offend you, and they weren’t there to make you lose your appetite over breakfast.

They were there because the events of a segment of the Iowa State population are important. They’re newsworthy. Even if you don’t like that particular segment.

There are lots of different “weeks” during the year on this campus. There’s Engineers’ Week, there’s Ag Week, there’s Greek Week, there’s International Week, there’s Veishea.

Each of these “weeks” gets something about them in the Daily. Some of them may not get as much as others, based on a number of different factors.

Take Ag Week, for example. Ag Week happened last fall, and during the week, the Daily ran one story and one feature photo on the Agriculture page.

Why didn’t we run more about Ag Week? Is it because we hate farmers and have no appreciation for those who till the land? Is it because we’re flagrantly liberal and can’t stand conservative ag students?

No.

We at the Daily love farmers. We love them so much that we devote a complete page every week to agricultural issues. We didn’t run more about Ag Week because, No. 1, we didn’t receive any information on it beforehand, and No. 2, every week is ag week at this school.

Now take Veishea. This Wednesday, the Daily will publish two special sections about Veishea. There will be 22 extra pages devoted solely to this student-run celebration.

Now why is that? Is it because we’re pro-greek and we want to shove Veishea down everyone’s throats? Is it because we’re blatantly conservative and we mindlessly support school-sanctioned events?

No.

We at the Daily write a lot about Veishea because it’s the big “Iowa State self-promotion” of the year. We cover it because it’s a big deal to this school — not to everyone at this school, but to a lot of Iowa Staters.

So where does Awareness Week 2000 fit into all of this? We ran two articles about the week and three photographs, including the drag queen and the two guys kissing. That’s three pieces of information more than Ag Week, about 50 less than Veishea.

Sure, the majority of ISU students aren’t involved in LGBTAA. But the majority of students aren’t involved in Ag Week or Veishea either.

The truth is, the shot of the drag queen was a great photo. The colors were beautiful, it printed very nicely, it looked great. The photo wasn’t gratuitous, it wasn’t offensive, it wasn’t overdoing it on coverage of “gay” events — particularly in comparison to our Veishea coverage. And it did get people talking, which is what it was supposed to do.

I’m not ashamed of the LBGT students on campus, and when you consider how many times we print photos of a guy and a girl kissing or holding hands, it’s only fair to print one photo a year of two males kissing.

The Iowa State Daily is not this school’s moral compass. It’s not supposed to be, and you wouldn’t want it to be. We won’t tell you what things are “right” and what things are “wrong.” We’re not a propagandist newsletter for the university, and we expect you college students to be able to think for yourselves.

We simply try to show you all sides. The LGBTAA is one of those sides, just like Ag Week and Veishea and a whole slew of other events that we cover.

We don’t get it right all the time. We miss things, we don’t cover some things well enough, and we regret it.

But we weren’t wrong in how we covered Awareness Week.

If you still think the Daily is a leftist bunch of commies, fine. You can think whatever you want. Write a letter, if you feel like it. I personally would love to hear what you have to say about me.

Use your freedom of speech, because you can be sure that we will continue exercising ours.

---

Sara Ziegler is a senior in journalism and political science from Sioux Falls, S.D. She is editor in chief of the Daily.