It's been an interesting week in the free speech debate; we have Holocaust denier Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaking at Columbia University next Monday, A Colorado collegiate newspaper that runs an editorial of two words: F**K BUSH and Stanford students and faculty hitting twelve on the outrage meter that Donald Rumsfeld will participate in classes. In other words, we have a strong, healthy dose of reinvigorating the Constitutional debate happening and it's always a good exercise.
First on Ahmadinejad. I, for one, say, "let the man speak." Sunlight is a great disinfectant and perhaps an enterprising blogger or student will ask him some tough questions the media does not. Maybe we'll see him put on the spot for his references to erasing Israel and his steady quest for nukes. Heaven knows that free speech is effectively dead in his home country of Iran, where saying what you think will get you shot. We also see the anti-war people for who they are, rabid socialists who support Palestinians and abhor Israel.
In other words, a man that right-thinking people hate is allowed to speak because the political right values free speech more than the political left. The proof is available in two cases in California involving the aforementioned Rumsfeld and Larry Summers.
In the case of Rumsfeld, Stanford University faculty members are in an uproar because the Hoover Institute would allow the former Secretary of Defense as a fellow. They want to effectively shut down his ability to speak freely, which would stifle debate before it began. In the case of Summers, he was due to speak at UC Board of Regents dinner until 150 faculty members protested and he was not allowed to speak. The Harvard Crimson sums their actions up thusly:
More generally, the quashing of Summers' speech points to a troubling trend in academia. Increasingly, the unrestricted marketplace of ideas that must form the heart of any university worth the name is being poisoned by a perverse pressure to conform truth to political agenda and stifle any speaker who espouses uncomfortable or inconvenient opinions. In the present case, the culprits are academics who fashion themselves as progressives eager for social justice and tolerance, but the other side of the political spectrum is no less guilty in others. This situation is alarming and dangerous. If academic freedom cannot exist in the university, our society is in trouble.
I attended a UC school and to be honest, I'm outraged that schools which are thought to be so open-minded are in fact the complete opposite. The fact that it is professors, not students who have stopped a man from speaking should be chilling to any American. What did Summers, the former President of Harvard say that was so vile; he said that the reason there are not more women professors in the sciences is because of innate differences between men and women based on facts in several reports. For that, he's worse than Ahmedinejad.
And finally, in Colorado, the editorial board of the student newspaper at Colorado State University is realizing what it means to utilize your right to free speech but also that the public has the right to not buy the products advertised in your paper. That's a double lesson, freedom of speech and economics. I hope they got the gist of it.
Overall, it's been a good week for the Constitution. The steady creep of professorial censorship is indeed alarming but the new media will constantly uncover new cases. We've also seen that the left-wing in this country is all for free speech; that is as long as it's speech they agree with.
Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 1)
1. I want to hear what Ahmadinejad has to say. Lets get him on U.S. soil answering the questions of Americans.
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Patrick at 8:59PM on Sep 23rd 2007
2. STATEMENT OF BOARD OF DIRECTORS FOR SCHOLARS FOR PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST ON AHMEDINEJAD VISIT TO COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
By Scholars for Peace in the Middle East Board of Directors
Published in: Exclusive to SPME Faculty Forum September 23, 2007
The Board of Directors of _Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME), an international academic community of over 19,000 scholars at 1000 university campuses, strongly condemns those responsible for the appearance of Mahmoud Ahmedinejad at Columbia University for the following
reasons.
1) Mr. Ahmedinejad, in violation of international law, has kidnapped and
imprisoned academics.
2) Mr. Ahmedinejad, in violation of international law, has supported
state-sponsored terrorism.
3) Mr. Ahmedinejad is engaging in the largest purge of academics, with
arrests and expulsion of students (estimated at 3000) since the Ayatollah
Khomeni's Islamic Cultural Revolution purge as a "corrective movement."
4) Mr. Ahmedinejad, in violation of principles of academic freedom, wants
university textbooks rewritten to cleanse them of "infidel trash."
5) Mr. Ahmedinejad, in violation of international law, has committed
incitement to commit genocide both against Israel and in Darfur.
6) Mr. Ahmedinejad, in violation of principles of academic integrity, has
engaged in historical revisionism, giving credence to denial
of the Holocaust as an event of history.
SPME is strongly committed to the principles of academic freedom, but it is both naive and a distortion of the principle to believe that Mr. Ahmedinejad's appearance at Columbia University furthers or even strengthens academic freedom or can even be categorized under this cherished rubric.
Columbia fails to distinguish between those who espouse hateful views--and thus can be challenged in debate--and those whose political interests depend on implementing those hateful values. The latter cannot engage in meaningful debate without relinquishing their power.
While Mr. Ahmedinejad may be a world leader and entitled to the courtesies accorded to such, he is not entitled to be legitimized academically to propagandize his positions in an institution of higher learning to develop sympathies for his cause, which are matters of life and death.
Not only would Mr. Ahmedinejad not extend the same courtesies to leaders hostile to Iran, but he considers Columbia's invitation a sign of weakness and foolishness on part of Western academics, who invite their enemies into their institutions of higher learning and allow them to spread hostile propaganda. Columbia may think it shows its moral superiority to Ahmedinejad in being so tolerant, but it merely displays to the entire world its fatal misunderstanding of the difference between freedom of speech and granting murderers legitimacy.
The Administration of Columbia University has made a very unwise decision and must be told so by faculty peers from around the world. As of this writing and circulation, it is not too late to cancel this invitation and we respectfully demand that President Bollinger do so.
Edward S. Beck, Ed.D., CCMHC, NCC, LPC,
President
Board of Directors
Jonathan Adelman, Ph.D., University of Denver
Steven Albert, Ph.D., MPH, University of Pittsburgh
Leila Beckwith, MD, University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA)
John R. Cohn, MD, Thomas Jefferson University
Donna Robinson Divine, Ph.D., Smith College
Stanley Dubinsky, Ph.D., U. of South Carolina
Awi Federgruen, Ph.D., Columbia U.
Rev. India E. Garnett, M.Div. Treasurer, Harrisburg PA Chapter, United
Church of Christ
Rabbi Peter Haas, Ph.D. Case Western Reserve U.
Judith Jacobson, Dr. P.H., Vice President, Columbia U.
Efraim Karsh, Kings College U. of London
Matthias Kuentzel, Ph.D., Germany
Richard Landes,Ph.D. Boston U.
Ruth Lichtenberg-Contreras, Ph.D., Secretary, U. of Vienna and Natural
History Museum of Vienna
Robert S. Mirin, Esq., Harrisburg, PA
G.S. Don Morris, Ph.D.,California Polytechnic U./Wingate Institute IL
Philip Carl Salzman,Ph.D. McGill U.
Gerald Steinberg, Ph.D., Bar Ilan U.
Ernest Sternberg, Ph.D. U. of Buffalo
For Further Information Contact:
Dr. Edward S. Beck. President 717.576.5038, ScholarsforPeace@aol.com
Dr. Edward S. Beck, President Scholars for Peace in the Middle East at 9:50PM on Sep 23rd 2007
3. I AGREE, LET THE GUY SPEAK.I DOUBT HE WILL INFLUENCE ANYONE EXCEPT FELLOW IMBECILES. WHAT I FIND MOST OFFENSIVE HOWEVER IS THE HECKLING AND SHOUTING DOWN OF UNPOPULAR SPEAKERS. THIS IS A TACTIC OF BOTH THE RIGHT AND THE LEFT AND IT IS REALLY A THINLY VEILED ATTEMPT BY EXTREMISTS WHO WANT EVERYONE TO KNOW THAT THEY HAVE THE "TRUTH". I DON'T NEED MY EDUCATION "DIRECTED" BY THESE FASCISTS.
IRONBLUEEYES at 10:24PM on Sep 23rd 2007
4. Isn't this a government issue since its involve a President of a nation.
KaM at 1:08AM on Sep 24th 2007