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Editor:
In regards to James F. Tracy's Wednesday letter ("Take skateboarder's 'wooden boards' away and give out hula-hoops instead") on the banning of skateboards due to the fact that it is a "pointless practice" and the skaters are "unkempt" looking, I am appalled.
It is rationales such as this that are turning our country into a tip-toe society, where our individual freedoms are slowly being taken from us. If things as simple as riding a skateboard on campus become illegal, what is to follow? Maybe we should not allow people to lounge on the Mall lawn because it might kill the grass, or maybe people should not be allowed to read the books in the library because excessive page turning might ruin the binding! Besides, who wants to partake in these "pointless" behaviors anyway?
Pertaining to the comparison Mr. Tracy made that "pigeons are often as unkempt looking as the average juvenile skateboarder," what was he implying? Maybe he means that people should be banned from campus for expressing their individuality through hair and dress?
I understand that Mr. Tracy was addressing juvenile skateboarding, but there are plenty of UA students that skate on campus as well. Myself not being one of them, I still will support their right to "derive pleasure out of this pastime."
I shall remind Mr. Tracy and the rest of you who insist on limiting human rights of the effects from these restrictions: Kindergarten and grade-school children expelled from school for a peck on the cheek to an admired peer, a junior high girl expelled for easing the pain of monthly cramps with non-prescription ibuprofen during school, and not to mention the ever-building tension in the workplace between men and women because of the threat of exhausted sexual harassment charges.
Excuse me now, I am going to read a banned book.
Shannon C. McCarty
journalism sophomore
Shannon C. McCarty
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