To the editor:

I’d like to begin here by applauding Mr. Rickert for pointing out, once again, that Iowa State is a money laundering facility.

Mr. Rickert seems to think that the ISU name, logo, etc. should be totally affiliated with whatever can make a buck.

While I’m quite confident that some of the administration agree, that is not what Iowa State University nor the Daily are about.

Last time I checked, I was paying for my education here at Iowa State. The administration and alumni certainly are not cutting me checks.

Apparently, if it’s not a popular topic, it shouldn’t be talked about. The unfortunate part is this, Mr. Rickert: It is a topic worthy of discussion.

It affects the lives of many students. The opinion columns are brimming with communication from both sides of this tolerance issue.

The Daily is more important to many students here as a forum for what is happening on campus, not whether Afghanistan is going to nuke India.

You got one thing right, the Daily does have a target: the students of Iowa State. I can and do find out about world events by reading other papers.

However, The Des Moines Register and Newsweek aren’t really keyed in to what is happening on campus, and I’d be willing to bet that they don’t post final exam schedules or tell me where campus events are taking place.

The Daily serves as a source of campus news, not as a major source of world news. Other newspapers and magazines exist for that purpose explicitly.

Nothing stops us from picking them up and reading them. If students here do not take advantage of other news sources, that is another issue. I encourage students to tune into the events around the world as you do.

However, what world do you think I live in? Certainly not the “real” world as you suggest. I cannot possibly be in tune with world events if I read the so-called “campus tabloid.”

On the contrary, rarely do I pick up the Daily and see a headline: “Man gives birth to lobster baby!” You cannot simply attack the credibility of the Daily because it shows “deviant” alternative lifestyles.

If the Daily ran foreign culture articles for a week, everyone would applaud it for being diverse.

Yet when it is bold and attempts to bring to the foreground a lifestyle that roughly 10 percent of the population chooses, bigots lose their minds and assault it, calling it a liberal, trashy tabloid.

I really like the idea of using “proper channels” to talk about LGBT issues. What exactly are these channels? The Wall Street Journal?

You say, Mr. Rickert, that you would think again about sending a child to Iowa State.

Why is that? Because the level of education has gone down?

Because the Administration is more concerned with research?

Because we are misusing our multi-million dollar facilities?

Or is it because the Daily prints papers that generate communication between two groups with differing opinions?

In conclusion, your attacks on the Daily are weak and sad. In all truth they are pathetic.

I doubt anyone missed the true intention of your letter. You use money as a catalyst to destroy communication.

You have your right to an opinion, although your efforts are misdirected. Do you think learning is a function of money donated by alumni?

Do you seriously believe the level of graduate competence is somehow tainted by what is read in the Daily? Someone once told me that, “just reading, reading anything, is good for you … “

Now, all of the sudden, the popularity of what you read is a function of learning?

The Daily is a forum for communication to broaden understanding between the students at Iowa State University, not a forum that caters to the wants of a useless alumnus who no doubt has nothing to offer this institution but intolerance and ignorance.

We can do without your donations if it means having a news organization free to cover ALL campus activities.

James Primrose

Junior

Computer science and

management information systems