To the editors:
Maureen Cole voted to expel Tyner. She is a nonsmoker. Mark Storer voted to let Tyner stay. Mark is a smoker. I voted to expel Tyner. I had not smoked tobacco for over nine months at the time of this vote. After Tyner’s eviction, he and his two supporters who had left with him made repeated attempts to regain access to our building against our wishes. Under the emotional pressure of the situation I feared I might well lose my temper altogether and become violent towards these would-be trespassers if I did not calm down my rattled nerves by means of some nicotine. Tyner White is directly and personally responsible for my readdiction to nicotine.
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The claim that I and we support political violence is a very serious charge indeed, and it most certainly was not adequately documented by Tyner’s assertion that my present roommate (who was not even a member of the co-op when we evicted Tyner) once assisted an effort which included throwing blood at some people’s feet during a demonstration. Unless Langer can come up with a whole lot better than this, he and the Reader owe myself and the rest of us a retraction and apology. It will not suffice for White or Langer to say that we used force or threat of force to thwart attempts by Tyner and his supporters to force their way back into the co-op. Do you have a right to keep Tyner White out of your home if you don’t want him there? Fine. So do I.
Mike Muench
