Most people have experienced to some degree the frustration of being subjected to receiving reams of “junk mail.” Everything from sweepstakes entries requiring a purchase to enter—and which no one ever seems to win—to offers of cheap life insurance is sent by the bundle every day.

The newest rage in junk mail at NIU is a racist newspaper, the Thunderbolt. Its slogan is, “News suppressed by the daily press.” It claims blacks are responsible for the AIDS epidemic, that interracial marriage is the cause of the decline of the American family and a return to a segregated society would make everyone more “pure.”

Generally, people get junk mail because they are on mailing lists with their credit card companies or the magazines they subscribe to. These companies can make a lot of money by selling their mailing lists to the junk mail companies. One can sometimes prevent this by telling their credit card bank or magazine publishers not to give their name to anyone else.

When this tactic fails, there is the form letter: “Remove my name from your mailing list; I do not wish to receive any more of your worthless literature.” Depending on how many companies are sending a person their materials, this can get expensive, but a little postage expense can go a long way.

However, one of the most disturbing things about the Thunderbolt mailing list is it was not purchased. It was compiled by people in the NIU or DeKalb community. Whether these individuals randomly picked names from the phone book or sent in names of people they knew is unknown at this time.

Recipients of the mailings are understandably upset. They did not ask that this nonsensical publication be sent to them. True, they can just throw it away—and that does seem to be the simplest answer. But it won’t stop the newspaper from coming to them—or to other individuals who are singled out. Throwing the paper away doesn’t do much to alleviate the disgust at receiving it in the first place.

Larry Robertson, the Student Association’s minority relations adviser, has asked that students who receive the Thunderbolt bring the copies to him. When Robertson has gathered a batch of the papers together he will return them to the Thunderbolt’s editor with a request that no further copies be sent and the names be struck from the mailing list.

Perhaps if the editor receives an en masse return of his mailings, he will get the message there is no market for his junk on the NIU campus.