I am a 1973 graduate of the University of Maryland and a Marine Corps veteran of the Vietnam War who lived through the anti-war protests on the school's campus in the early 1970s.
The university gave no consideration to the feelings and rights of students who were veterans. But while I disagreed with the protesters, I supported their right to free speech — as demonstrated by the 393 combat missions I flew in Vietnam — and I did not attempt to stifle their right to free expression.
But now the university would deny the rights of tens of thousands of students and faculty because of a small minority's objection to a movie that has been universally well-received in this country ("University of Maryland group pulls 'American Sniper' from spring lineup after outcry," April 23).
Where is the university's vaunted commitment to freedom of expression and its sense of fairness now? As Joseph Nye Welch, head counsel for the U.S. Army, responded to Sen. Joseph McCarthy at the Army-McCarthy Trials in the 1950s: "Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"
I sincerely hope UM will show the film "American Sniper" as originally scheduled.
Ronald J. Zaczek