Letters to the Editor

Promote your own views

To the Editor:

As students at a school that prides itself on open expression and free speech, we are disappointed by an apparent trend. Last week, Hillel posted a banner on Locust Walk to promote a lecture by Ambassador Dennis Ross. The morning after the event, the banner had been cut down, with the empty polls remaining. While we were disturbed, the event had already occurred, and we did not pursue the matter.

However, on Wednesday morning, we began publicizing next week's Israeli Film Festival with a new banner, designed to mimic an Israeli flag. To our dismay, Friday morning we once again found empty polls on Locust Walk, with our banner missing. Additionally, many of our flyers that we posted around campus to promote the event have been ripped down.

We recognize that the situation in Israel is delicate and that there are many sides to the issues. To those who feel the need to react to our event, we would hope that you would do so by hanging your own banner or otherwise promoting your views, rather than taking ours down and preventing our voice from being heard. We respect a variety of views on these crucial issues and hope that others will do the same, instead of resorting to theft or vandalism.

We hope that this trend will end immediately, so that we can continue to foster a community of openness and respect on this campus.

Katie Jorgensen Student president, Penn Hillel

David Rendsburg Israel chairman, Penn Hillel

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.