Tech News is justified in publishing advertisement

First off, let me say that I do not in any way agree with or support Bradley R. Smith or his organization, CODOH. That being said, let me also say that I believe that Tech News made the right decision to publish the ad that CODOH submitted to the paper. Sometimes it is the responsibility of a publication to run an ad or opinion piece that the editorial board finds offensive if for no other reason than to alert their readers to what is actually "out there". I do not believe any of the members of the Tech News staff actually agree with any of the positions CODOH takes, but they ran the ad anyway because they believed that the WPI community has the right to read and understand (and reject or accept) the meaning of the ad and site for themselves. I find the letters to the paper attacking Tech News for their decision to run the ad as offensive as the ad itself. To suggest that the paper was irresponsible for running the ad is downright ludicrous! It is an insult to the intellect of the WPI community for these people to ask the paper to apologize for running the ad. It is also disappointing to me that these people are condemning the paper for this ad. They SHOULD be condemning the organization itself. I personally find holocaust deniers to be VERY offensive. However, I do not hold Tech News responsible for the opinions of the deniers... that would be ignorant and naive. Tech News did nothing wrong by publishing this ad. They only performed their duty as the student newspaper of WPI. I am grateful that they published this ad because it caused me to read up on the holocaust and get my facts straight. It caused me to consider the points CODOH makes. Finally, it caused me to reject the ideas CODOH presents as being not only untrue, but offensive as well. But, and I stress this, I do not find Tech News's decision to run the ad offensive. I am a better person for it, and for that I thank Tech News.

I encourage everyone who was offended by this to do as I did and read up on the holocaust and find the horrible truth that CODOH is trying to disprove. Then, if you decide as I did that CODOH is wrong, take action against CODOH- NOT Tech News. I'd be willing to bet that Tech News would support this. I would even go so far as to say that this was the reaction they were looking for when they published the ad.

Finally, let me close by saying that it is our exposure to adverse and even offensive ideas that helps us grow as people. I am reminded of a famous quote: "What does not kill us only makes us stronger". I think the WPI community should take that to heart in this instance.