How incompetent does one have to be to become president of a big ten 
university? 
	We have had not one, not two, not three, but four riots in the past two 
years.  The most recent being the worst since Kent State.  Yet, the university 
continues to ignore history.  Their response is no different now than it was 
after Munn.  
	Ten Thousand people is somehow a minority of a minority, just like 
Munn.  After all, the majority weren't blowing up police cruisers, they were 
just cheering them on.  The university will continue to ignore the student 
body.  Which, knowing McPherson, is to be expected.  More restrictions and 
Zero Tolerance programs will be implemented.  It will all fail, there will be 
another riot, even larger and more violent than the last.
	However, as I see it, this is not the real danger.  It can be prevented, 
though I am sure it won't.  If this is not stopped now, the rioting will no 
longer be about anger and repressed freedom.  It will become an institution, 
like Devil's Night in Detroit.
	My advice to whatever "action team" they decide to form now is to kill 
Zero Tolerance and restore MSU to where it was two years ago.  There was a 
lot more partying going on then, however no one was setting cars on fire.  If 
you continue to push, it will just escalate.
	One more thing.  In the past week I have heard complaints from 
alumni, family members and an entire fourth grade class about how awful and 
embarrassing the riots were.  I am sick of hearing this crap from people who 
have no clue what has been going on here over the past few years.  
	They aren't seeing students being cuffed and beaten on CNN, just for 
being drunk and underage.  Nor do they know about the police raiding local 
TV stations for riot footage.  They haven't been told how McPherson forced 
our Greek system to go dry.  
With what I have seen happen here in the past year, this riot is more 
than justified.


							Matt Harrison
							Electrical Engineering Junior