To the Editor:
Daniel Killeen's op-ed ("All Speech Should Be Equal," May 3) attempted the absurd -- to defend an act of overtly bigoted agitation (flying an airplane over the immigrant solidarity rally with an anti-immigrant message) by means of the very values of tolerance and diversity such an act flouted. Killeen attempts to insulate himself and his organization from our opprobrium -- simply asking for equality of treatment, that we listen to The Dartmouth Review as we would to anyone else. But equality is actually not what Killeen is asking for at all; he is asking for exceptionalism. He is implicitly requesting that the actions and words of a consistently intolerant newspaper be given special indulgence because those actions and words are intolerant, that we hold our tongues and quench our ire for an action designed to provoke nothing but indignation. He is asking, in short, that we react to intolerance with more forbearance than we would to a slightly irritating, though innocuous, statement.
It is cowardly to intentionally foment anger and then to hide behind one's rights of free speech and to complain about "persecution." It is thoroughly insulting to the notion of diversity to use it as a wall behind which one can be as bigoted and intolerant as one wishes. It is ridiculous to call out the campus or parts thereof for an attitude that you have done everything in your power to cultivate. The boy who kicks over a beehive has little justification for complaining about being stung.
