I was amused after reading the recent letter by William Rainey. It is obvious that the University of Alabama is failing its most intellectually needy students, those who seemed to need an education on speech/privacy rights as they relate to public universities that receive federal funding.

The First Amendment is not a carte blanche blanket to engage in whatever speech or assembly you wish. The Supreme Court has addressed this issue in several cases: Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire, Doe v. University of Michigan and, more importantly, 1992’s R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul which limits speech/assembly based on “reasonable grounds that arouse anger, alarm or resentment in others based on the basis of race, color, creed, religion or gender.” The stop of the KA parade in front of the AKA house was an intentional, puerile and ignorant attempt to provoke.

William Rainey needs to grow up and learn to research before he speaks, understand before he writes and take into consideration larger issues besides his own backwards, knee-jerk, reactionary impulses. KA has been shown preferential treatment for years by allowing their “Old South” festivities to continue. What nerve someone must have to portray himself as a victim, as somehow, the subject of an “unlawful request,” when he is ignorant of the very law he claims shields such tired, insipid bigotry.

KA should be applauded for moving ahead to 2010. Of course, there will always be those who hold onto old customs and beliefs that represent the worst of the United States, or write uninformed tripe that can barely pass as some third-rate Rush Limbaugh knock-off. If William Rainey wishes to help fight these, I suggest he first look in the mirror.

Eric Dunning is a Ph.D. student in communications.