In the last few days, the assault on free speech continued unabated. At DePaul University, a speech by a conservative was disrupted by two protesters who threatened violence and the campus security would not even intervene to stop the melee. It's doubly interesting because the university administration would not let the event proceed in the first place unless the group sponsoring the speaker paid for that security to be present. The protesters said they were "preventing hate speech". When the speaker led the audience to the president's office to protest the disruption to their event and the inaction of the security, it was, you guessed it, campus security that kept them from entering the building housing the president's office.
Outside the Trump rally in New Mexico, protesters waved Mexican flags and shouted at those attending the rally. Okay. But then the protesters started throwing rocks and attacking the local police. Perhaps the best quote came from a protester who said she was against Trump using her family as a scapegoat. She confirmed that her family were here illegally. The Trump rally went off without a hitch, and the small protest made no difference.
Why is it that our universities tolerate those who would stop free speech? To use a favorite Obama phrase, that's not who we are. Our Supreme Court held that Nazis could march through a community in Illinois filled with Holocaust survivors; it's called free speech because we are supposed to be free to say what we want. That ruling was forty years ago. Imagine what would happen today in two comparable situations: 1) The local Islamic students society on some campus disrupts the ROTC graduation chanting that these soon-to-be military officers are being trained to kill Moslems; and 2) a group from the campus ROTC chants "they include terrorists" and marches through a meeting of Moslem students speaking on behalf of bringing in Syrian refugees to this country. There's no doubt that the ROTC students would be savaged by the university administration and local media. There's also no doubt that nothing would happen to those who disrupted the ROTC graduation. In other words, we no longer have free speech; we have only "approved" speech. If those in power like what you have to say, you're ok; otherwise, it's fine to shut you up.
Outside the Trump rally in New Mexico, protesters waved Mexican flags and shouted at those attending the rally. Okay. But then the protesters started throwing rocks and attacking the local police. Perhaps the best quote came from a protester who said she was against Trump using her family as a scapegoat. She confirmed that her family were here illegally. The Trump rally went off without a hitch, and the small protest made no difference.
Why is it that our universities tolerate those who would stop free speech? To use a favorite Obama phrase, that's not who we are. Our Supreme Court held that Nazis could march through a community in Illinois filled with Holocaust survivors; it's called free speech because we are supposed to be free to say what we want. That ruling was forty years ago. Imagine what would happen today in two comparable situations: 1) The local Islamic students society on some campus disrupts the ROTC graduation chanting that these soon-to-be military officers are being trained to kill Moslems; and 2) a group from the campus ROTC chants "they include terrorists" and marches through a meeting of Moslem students speaking on behalf of bringing in Syrian refugees to this country. There's no doubt that the ROTC students would be savaged by the university administration and local media. There's also no doubt that nothing would happen to those who disrupted the ROTC graduation. In other words, we no longer have free speech; we have only "approved" speech. If those in power like what you have to say, you're ok; otherwise, it's fine to shut you up.
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