Campaign Bias

Your coverage of the speech by Vice President George Bush at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography Oct. 14 left out something that impressed me. That was the activity of anti-Bush drumbeaters who were allowed to play loudly on drums and other instruments in the courtyard of the Scripps buildings while the vice president spoke. This, as was intended, made it difficult for those at the meeting to hear what the vice president had to say.

I can’t understand why the chancellor of UC San Diego, who was present, permits this sort of interference with the rights of people to hear what the vice president of the United States has to say.

A solid phalanx of Dukakis signs had been posted inside the rooms of the Scripps buildings, on windows overlooking the podium when I arrived. A few Bush signs were permitted on the lower, outside windows just before the event, but throughout the upper stories of the Scripps buildings were nothing but Dukakis signs. When I asked one of the men in an office if I could put a Bush sign next to his Dukakis sign, he refused. When I asked whether the office belonged to him or the taxpayers of California, he summoned someone to ask me to leave the building.

Apparently the left-leaning faculty of the state university system is firmly in control at this institution for graduate students, as well as in the various undergraduate institutions. It’s too bad we don’t have chancellors with a tolerance for the rights of those who would like to hear the vice president of our country, and a sense of courtesy toward our elected leaders.

J.P. GARNER

Solana Beach