Investigate and Punish Peninsula Poster Vandals

On Feb. 27, Peninsula engaged in a postering campaign in order to attract new members. One of the four varieties of posters compared Peninsula's beliefs to the dominant liberal ideology on campus. Apparently, a band of left-wing terrorists thought it would be amusing to create over two-dozen fraudulent posters that would lead the reader to believe Peninsula was a home for racists and bigots. The goal was to libel the magazine and ruin the good names of those associated with it; scaring off potential recruits was merely an added side benefit. The vandals, though, were too scared and embarrassed to sign their names; whereas Peninsula has always, and will always, proudly and publicly stand behind its positions and its posters.

We at Peninsula are aware that our views might be unpopular with some members of the Harvard community. Any advocate of free speech, though, should champion the right of an officially-sanctioned group to advertise its existence to the student body. Not once has Peninsula or any other conservative organization stooped to a level such as this. In the space of a few months, though, our enemies have put a swastika on the door of one of our members, Jose Padilla '97, and put an incredibly intolerant note which bordered on a death threat outside the door of one of our former editors, Undergraduate Council Representative Steven Mitby '99. The fact that the Mitby incident occurred on the same day as the imitation poster campaign suggests that these two acts may be the work of a single group or individual. And the fact that Mitby had received a particularly odious e-mail from a board member of the BGLTSA suggests that extremists within the gay rights movement may be responsible for one or more of these vicious attacks. We at Peninsula have fought out battles with the pen, but have been answered with a rhetorical sword. This campaign of ideological genocide, however, shall not succeed for Peninsula is committed, now more that ever, to spreading the simple message of "Faith, Family and Freedom."

These cowardly frauds cannot go unpunished by the University. Whoever posted these fliers is a liar, cheat and a fraud. The offender(s) should be drummed out of Harvard in disgrace. These terrorists are engaged in a systematic attempt to exterminate conservative thought on campus. An investigation must be launched into this unprecedented assault on the values that we as Harvard students and Americans hold dear.

On behalf of the Council of Peninsula and all those who are associated with the publication, I would like to call on President Neil Rudenstine and Dean Archie C. Epps III to set aside whatever biases they might have against Peninsula and speak out in defense of our right to free speech. Nothing was done when Padilla was defamed. Nothing was done when gay activists verbally assaulted Ralph Reed. Are conservatives not entitled to equal protection under University rules?

A final word to the perpetrators of these heinous deeds: you have dishonored a noble organization with your libelous acts. In a more chivalrous age, we would meet you on the field of honor and settle this matter like men, once and for all. But since you have neither honor, nor courage, I guess we shall have to rely on the Ad Board for justice. --Chris Griffith '97