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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Huckleberries Online

WSU Repubs Run Into Intolerance Over “Wall”

Tom Forbes/Palousitics provides full post by Kiley D. Smith, WSU College Repub prez here, WSU Evergreen story here.

It is with a high degree of disappointment and distrust that I write this letter regarding an increasingly violent wave of discrimination and close-mindedness against members of a political group at Washington State University. The WSU College Republicans has been working for several weeks to present a demonstration on illegal immigration to the WSU campus. It was designed to be tactful and reasonable presentation concerning the facts about uncontrolled immigration into the United States. Unfortunately, the WSU CR's has been forced to reconsider their plans as a result of certain altercations with overzealous individuals in the WSU community. Ever since the CR's plans were approved by WSU Campus Involvement, members of the College Republicans have been met with malicious comments, threats of destruction of private property, and physical assault on at least one occasion, by WSU students. The College Republicans have repeatedly been belittled and slandered by several faculty members and multicultural organizations, and have been accused of being racist despite our desire to make it clear that we are not anti Latino nor anti immigration, but anti illegal immigration. Regrettably, our group has been targeted with hate and violence even before having the chance to speak our views -- Kiley D. Smith/WSU College Republicans president.

DFO: I'm amazed how conservative ideas aren't tolerated on college campuses that pride themselves on being open-minded.



Huckleberries Online

D.F. Oliveria started Huckleberries Online on Feb. 16, 2004. Oliveria's Sunday print Huckleberries is a past winner of the national Herb Caen Memorial Column contest.