I am writing to protest the extremely poor judgement that was used in printing the article “Weed Grows Wild” in yesterday’s Daily, along with the photo of the wild hemp plant growing outside of the Alpha Chi Omega sorority house.

The ONLY reason this article made the front page was because you have a picture connecting a greek organization with marijuana.

If you don’t believe me, ask yourself one question: If someone had a photograph of hemp growing outside of Curtiss Hall, would that have made the front page? The answer is absolutely not.

In order for a news article to get the banner headline on the front page, it must meet at least one criteria: It must be news. News flash — weed grows wild in Iowa! No shit? This may be news to some incoming freshman from Morocco, but it is common knowledge that hemp grows wild. Your article even leads off with the sentence, “Wild hemp growing near Iowa State’s campus is not unusual.” This statement alone disqualifies this as a “news” article. Other students may write in arguing that this article was not written to connect greeks with marijuana use.

In fact, they’ll say, this article clears Alpha Chi Omega of all wrong-doing with compelling statements like “Since then the wild hemp weed has been removed” and ” … charges would not be filed.” But I guarantee that the intent of this article wasn’t just to give a brief history of the uses of the marijuana plant. That again is fairly common knowledge.

The Daily’s intent has always been to connect bad things such as alcohol and drug abuse, rape and more serious crimes with greek organizations.

You knew damn well what people would think when they saw that picture. You also knew that after seeing e picture, the reader probably wouldn’t bother reading the article. A picture speaks a thousand words, and your article doesn’t say shit.

Jacob Martzahn

Senior

Chemical engineering