'IDS' serves readers, acted correctly

Of course the IDS was right to run the Horowitz ad -- as a self-styled public forum, it has no business engaging in content discrimination against paying advertisers. The First Amendment issue is about Horowitz's rights, not the IDS's. Whether pro- or anti-reparation, pro-life or pro-choice, Madalyn Murray O'Hair or Arthur S. DeMoss, NAMBLA or Christian Coalition, the speaker's First Amendment rights are the same, and the IDS acted admirably by not muzzling its advertisers with a speech code. \nThat the ad prompted today's special letter forum on the issue proves its social value -- it has spurred exactly the kind of free, open public discourse the First Amendment exists to encourage.\nIf you disagree, don't get offended, get involved. You'll be better served by disposing of any argument -- even if you deem it offensive or ludicrous -- on its merits than by merely stifling it until another day.