This is in response to Gretchyn Lenger’s column about the racist magazine Thunderbolt. I also feel that material such as Thunderbolt should be kept on the shelves of the NIU library.

NIU is an institution of higher education. It offers many different areas of study. Through history, sociology, political science and many other areas, we learn about the racism which is so imbedded into our society. What better use of a magazine like Thunderbolt is there than to learn from it by making an example of it? I’m sure any history teacher, when discussing the Civil Rights Movement, could use Thunderbolt and an example of the prejudiced rationality that Martin Luther King Jr. and all blacks were, and still are, up against. Perhaps a student could use Thunderbolt as a source for a research paper on “Racism in the U.S.” or “Racism in the Media.” A sociology teacher may be able to use the magazine to show how bad a racist belief can get and how destructive such beliefs can be to our society. Yes, believe it or not, there are productive uses for such filth as Thunderbolt.

Why should such material be hidden? Rather than hide it, we should throw facts and statistics at it to prove its beliefs wrong. I do not feel that Thunderbolt should be banned from the NIU library shelves. It would serve a purpose to the NIU community to keep the magazine on the shelves. That purpoe being to solve a problem.

The first step in any type of problem solving is to recognize that there is a problem. A magazine such as Thunderbolt can be used to educate society of the problem and to work to find a solution to our problem of a racist society.

Christine A. Hennessey

undergraduate