RIGHTS

What does it mean to have freedom of expression? For me is being able to say a personal opinion about a subject without getting retaliated or censor. This past week LMU’s freedom of expression was questioned by a vandalizing act. As a part of awareness week to defend the motto that “No Human Being is Illegal”, student activist created a wall. The wall’s goal was to promote consciousness and awareness.Words such as “No Human Being is illegal”, “Stop deportation” and “#Not1more” were written to once again make people conscious about recent declarations to deport illegal immigrants. However, on Monday night, the wall was vandalized with the words “Trump” and “Deport all illegals”.

What does this say about LMU? What does this say about our student body? When I learned about the vandalizing of the wall, the first thing that came to my mind was the word “coward”. Who ever did it, is a coward. I believe our school is very flexible when it comes to people’s expression. We have come together to stand against many acts and we have also petitioned for our word to be heard. So if that person was so upset about the wall, then why he or she decided to vandalized it? If I were so upset about an statement made by the school, I would have created my own wall to reflect that all sides of the opinions can be heard.

Aside from believing that this was a cowardly action, I also think that it deteriorated our school image. We were featured in worldwide news channels such as “Univision”, “Channel 7 Eyewitness”, and “KTLA 5”. In addition, all the prospective students that walked by the sign noticed such act of vandalizing. This action also goes against LMU’s motto of “Men and Women for Others”. Instead of sowing and promoting violence in our campus we should develop a discussion like the one we had in the great debate series to allow all points to be heard.

Now my question to this person is: How would you feel if when traveling abroad Europeans for instance said: “Americans are a bunch of ignorant”, “They can't Handle their alcohol”, “They get wasted and trash our street” “we don't want them anymore”. I am sure you wouldn't be content with these words. The same goes for all the illegal immigrants that risk their lives and come to this country for a better and brighter future. They are not “dirty, drug dealers or violent”.  Just because you disagree doesn't mean that you have the right to vandalized something that is meant to cause awareness. 
-Maria Blanc Zoco