Remember, high school students aren’t first-graders. Some...

Remember, high school students aren’t first-graders. Some are old

enough to shoot M-16’s at other human beings in defense of the very

people who would deny them the basic rights that they would be

fighting to defend.

By stifling free thought, we just make young men and women of that

age group more thirsty for the truth. Remember, the lecture is about

fast food leading to obesity in young people. It’s not about free

condoms on campus or morning-after pills for children.

The self-proclaimed conservatives are showing their true hypocrisy

by their unfounded fear in letting this controversial author

advertise on campus to his target audience.

MIKE CUNNINGHAM

Costa Mesa

My husband and I attended the Newport Beach Public Library at one

of my favorite recurring events -- a lecture in the Martin W. Witte

Distinguished Speakers Lecture Series. This event is sponsored by the

Newport Beach Public Library Foundation, not taxpayer dollars. For

someone long out of graduate school, it is one of the most welcome

opportunities for lifelong learning available in our community. I

proudly declare that I have attended almost every lecture since the

series’ inception.

As a gift to the youth of our community, the series organizers

make special arrangements for local high school students to attend a

free event with speakers in this series. Recently, Joe Klein, a

writer for Time magazine, had the opportunity to address a room

filled with curious teens. In a quote from your paper, he said he was

delighted with the turnout, as he usually addresses an audience more

like a “retirement home.”

It was with great dismay that I read that the invitational fliers

offering this opportunity to students were prohibited at Newport

Harbor and Corona del Mar high schools. Actually, it was more than

dismay; it was shock.

Whatever happened to free speech? Additionally, in the age of the

Internet, with access to any kind of information available to anyone

at any time, how bizarre it is to think that “protecting” the youth

of our community from meeting a prize-winning author will protect

them from evil.

Schlosser is a guest in our community and is here to talk about

his best-selling book “Fast Food Nation.”

His book is excellent. It is a shame that our school officials

felt compelled to try to prevent students from learning something

from this successful, role model of a young man. I feel as though I’m

living in the Iowa town depicted in “The Music Man.”

One can only hope that the publicity about the suppression of

Schlosser’s appearance for our teens had just the opposite effect and

that attendance was boosted. One can only hope.

I look forward to many more interesting presentations. I hope the

same for our youth.

JANET S. HADLEY

Costa Mesa