Editor,
I noted your editorializing about the disregard of freedom of speech by those individuals calling for the resignation or dismissal of Professor Berthold. You are correct in your position that the Constitution guarantees Mr. Berthold the right to speak his mind. However, the Constitution also guarantees everyone else the same right.
It also guarantees each of us the right to hear some one making a complete horses ass of himself and to do what ever we can to bring that person to task for it.
To say that Mr. Berthold's comments on Sept. 11 were inappropriate would be like saying that a few people got hurt that day in New York and Washington, D.C. How any thinking human being could make that kind of comment when the body count was yet unknown and estimated to be in the tens of thousands is totally beyond me.
The fact that a professor of history could make such a comment completely stuns me. I don't understand how anyone on your staff could defend this individual. I already have sent Mr. Berthold an e-mail explaining to him how truly lucky he was that I was not in his class that day.
Perhaps someday something will cause you to understand the enormity of the evils that occurred that day in New York, Washington, D.C., and a classroom in the University of New Mexico.
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Joe Longshaw
Retired U.S. Navy
Preston, Mo.
