The Pilot editorial staff's left-wing liberalism is showing. In the April 19 editorial, "Two Protests Show a Marked Contrast," you managed (as usual) to look down on those who wished to express their constitutional rights to gather and ask for redress from the government. At least, "Such gatherings are not just tolerated as an inconvenience," sure sounds like condescension.

It should also be noted that you managed to spend four paragraphs on the "peaceful" demonstration and about one and one-half paragraphs on the violent demonstration at that so-called bastion of free speech called UNC Chapel Hill.

Which demonstration was the most troublesome to the editors at The Pilot? The peaceful one where citizens expressed their constitutional rights or the violent one where people denied an invited speaker his right to speak?

I remember how you so rightly voiced great concern when some students at N.C. State spray-painted some hateful things on a free expression wall after the elections. Where is the same outrage about the UNC incident?

The spray painting harmed no one. The violent protest could have resulted in injuries to innocent people.

After the spray-painting, the university system held many meetings and passed new rules governing hate speech and other acts. As of now, does The Pilot know if any of those violent protesters have been disciplined by the university? Or is there a double standard at work here?

William Dean Sr.

Aberdeen