I am writing in response to an article in The Daily Aztec covering the Associated Students’ Resolution on Student Expression, ASF-3, and related comments by A.S. council members (Daily Aztec, 11/21/96). The A.S. resolution “encourages students to exercise their rights to expression and speech in ways that: are respectful to others; are respectful of the cultures and traditions of our peers..”

In light of the Resolution on Student Expression, I strongly urge our elected voice (Associated Students) to speak out against past and future disrespectful student expression such as the recent desecration of the American flag.

I would also like to ask Rey Soto, president of the Native American Student Alliance, to consider desecration of our flag in the context of past desecration of cultural symbols dear to Native Americans. Did the Lakota people consider the mining of the Black Hills disrespectful? Of course.

Do I, as an American citizen, consider the burning of or urination upon our flag disrespectful? Of course. Do two wrongs make a right? Of course not.

Call me a blind patriot but I hope that whether we are of Xicano, European, Lakota, African or Korean ancestry, we can stop the legacy of hatred and retribution that serves no one.

Christopher Clayton

social sciences senior