Freedom of speech exists to support a liberal democracy which endows every member of society with the equally important rights of due process and equal protection.

Conservative students who cry “Freedom of Speech” in defense of their incoherent, and violent fantasy, are intellectually dishonest. To “Build the Wall” is to attempt to permanently dehumanize millions of Americans who would become even more suspect in our national, white supremacist ideology; for the practical effects of any potential concrete barrier are unimportant to those who chant for its construction.

The “wall” is a symbolic last defense for a white majority America, it would become a monument to preserving whiteness, to fearing perceived others, and to using federal power to promote a violently anti-liberal agenda predicated around controlling who can and who cannot be considered an American.

To construct the wall would be an actual blow to the free exchange of ideas. Graffiti on a bridge mural is laughable compared to this great threat to American liberal democracy.

To oppose the wall is to promote liberty. To support the wall is to promote tyranny—plain and simple. We all need to know this. We all need to understand that there are students among us who are fundamentally opposed to every liberal ideal upon which this country stands.

And for this reason I support this mural. If the opponents of liberty wish to present themselves, for the rest of us to understand their dangerously-misguided beliefs, let them do so. I’d rather the extreme right exist on the side of our shared walking space than in the recesses of our minds and the gutters of this University.

Because I oppose the vision of the mural, this is why I support its existence. The presence of hate organizes its opposition.

Corbin Buss

UMN Class of 2018

Editor’s Note: This letter has been edited for style conventions.