Iowa State Daily Editorial Board: Troy McCullough, Tim Davis, Jennifer Holland, Kathleen Carlson and Jenny Hykes.

The white supremacist fliers found in Pearson Hall are garbage. They’re inaccurate. They’re unsubstantiated. And they’re downright sickening.

No intelligent person in the university community would dispute this. But there is a debate about whether these fliers have the right to be hanging on campus in the first place.

Unfortunately, the answer is yes.

One of the greatest freedoms we have in this country is our freedom of speech and expression. It allows us to express ourselves as human beings, and it is at the heart of all of our freedoms.

It allows the media to criticize the government without fearing violent repercussions. It allows people to publicly protest policies that they view as immoral or wrong. It allows authors to take courageous stands on controversial subjects.

And it ensures that the public can receive a wide range of uncensored viewpoints on nearly every subject imaginable.

It is the essence of freedom and the essence of our humanity. But, unfortunately, upholding this freedom is as difficult as the freedom is important.

The only way to ensure that we all have the freedom to say and think what we want is to defend everybody’s right to free speech, including those with the most unpopular ideas to express — especially those with the most unpopular ideas to express.

Such is the case with the Pearson Hall fliers. They are offensive to everyone. But the university should not take them down.

Let the system work the way it was intended. Let the fliers expose the ignorance of those who wrote them. Attack them with logical, more intelligent words — not with censorship.

We have the power to use the same weapons these fliers chose to use. We have the ability to expose their untruths and fallacies.

We have the means to rid ourselves of such hateful thinking — not with censorship, but with our free speech.