It is unfortunate that the Daily Sundial has yet again set the stage for a negative discussion over race and politics here at Cal State Northridge.?

?Within only six days of a new semester, your news paper has already set the standard high by allowing an article to be published with blatant and misleading statements about the Military and racially charged comments by a faculty member whose biased opinion on such matters as the Military and race have shown us the true intent and nature of the Chicano/a Studies Department and M.E.Ch.A. here on campus.

?Camilo Mejia, a former soldier in the United States Army, should have told her that there is a long and drawn out vetting process that the United States Military goes through in order for it to allow an individual to become apart of any of the Branches of the Military.

?It is highly offensive to call him a “victim” of his own actions.? He defames the word and its actual intent.? I can assure you that Mr. Mejia was not forced into the Military, but on the contrary had to go through several weeks of paperwork, physicals and testing in order to even sign a contract with the Armed Forces.

?This contract includes asserting you are not a “conscientious objector”; understand that you can be killed in the line of duty, and that you will be called upon to serve not only the 3-4 years of your enlistment but 3-4 years either as National Guard/Reserves or IRR. The Military doesn’t force people to join, they come willingly.

? Ms. Furumoto, who is an Assistant Professor of Chicano/a Studies, has in the past used many misleading statements about the War in Iraq and the Military as a whole.? These statements have been proven incorrect and been published by your newspaper.? It astounds me that you would go back to her again as a source of factual information when she has been proven publicly inconsistent on many occasions.

?I believe that a University is a place for a sharing of ideas, in a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic environment so that every student can be immersed the differences of others around them so that it better enriches there college experience.?

Ms. Furumoto, on more then a handful of occasions, has made it quite clear that there is only one important ethnic group in her life.? Why do we continue to allow her free press and a spot on the faculty?

Jason Henke

Political Science

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