A few weeks ago, as everyone knows, our campus newspaper’s editors decided to publish an edition of “Sex on the Hill” whose cover featured a full-page photo of people having sex in our WWII memorial.

The editors are within their rights to publish trash like this, and we have the option to take it or leave it. But when pushing the envelope means desecrating a war memorial, they have clearly crossed a line.

Our editors at the University Daily Kansan have stood up for this piece by issuing a half-hearted apology, explaining that they didn’t know it was a memorial (must have missed the names as they walked in) and by publishing piece after piece defending their right to publish what they choose.

Yet the biggest irony of all is they have offended most the very people who have given them these rights. There are WWII veterans alive today, and they, without a doubt, take offense to this. These men and women who saw our country on the edge of defeat and wondered if they would make it home as they saw their friends killed by the thousands in battles like Normandy and Iwo Jima have a problem with our student paper turning their memorial (not ours) into a porn background.

These soldiers, sailors and Marines, many of whom actually visit the memorial and remember those they lost have a problem with our paper turning their service into a joke.

I have a close friend whose late father served in WWII, and she is a Navy veteran herself. Although she has never attended KU, I’ve talked to her at length about what has been going on here. As for the “Sex on the Hill” issue not being a big deal or offending a very small segment of the population, she had this to say, “Enjoy your freedom of speech. Our family bleeds for it. We die for your right to degrade us, spit on us and burn our flag. Enjoy all the freedoms that you have that many countries don't that we earned for you and you enjoy without lifting a finger for but would die without. Enjoy what you did not earn but are given freely without any question from us and our families. Enjoy biting the hand that feeds you.”

Next time our editors at the Kansan decide to put out some highly offensive trash, call it journalism and hide behind the First Amendment when the fallout starts, maybe they should think about where these freedoms come from.

— Adam Vieux is a junior in civil engineering from Groton, Conn.