The most disturbing thing about Ahmadinejad's appearance was the number of students opposed to him appearing at all.
Esther Lifshitz, 20, a Columbia University student and protester, said it was a "tragic irony" that Ahmadinejad was speaking at Columbia, while institutions in his own country don't have the same academic freedom.
Um, actually, that's precisely why Ahmadinejad should have been allowed to speak. Hokey as it sounds, our freedoms (are supposed to) make us stronger than a theocratic "democracy" run by clerics. Are we so insecure right now in our own values - which last time I checked included freedom of speech and assembly - that we're willing, even eager, to suspend them at a university, a place of inquiry?
If Ahmadinejad is "evil" (a word that's lost a lot of its punch over the last few years - The New York Daily News is determined to suck it dry of any meaning) I want to know what kind of "evil" - Hitler "evil"? Saddam "evil"? Or more Dr. "Evil"? Someone who plays at seeming menacing but is in fact a puppet of larger forces, in his case clerics?
Esther Lifshitz, 20, a Columbia University student and protester, said it was a "tragic irony" that Ahmadinejad was speaking at Columbia, while institutions in his own country don't have the same academic freedom.
Um, actually, that's precisely why Ahmadinejad should have been allowed to speak. Hokey as it sounds, our freedoms (are supposed to) make us stronger than a theocratic "democracy" run by clerics. Are we so insecure right now in our own values - which last time I checked included freedom of speech and assembly - that we're willing, even eager, to suspend them at a university, a place of inquiry?
If Ahmadinejad is "evil" (a word that's lost a lot of its punch over the last few years - The New York Daily News is determined to suck it dry of any meaning) I want to know what kind of "evil" - Hitler "evil"? Saddam "evil"? Or more Dr. "Evil"? Someone who plays at seeming menacing but is in fact a puppet of larger forces, in his case clerics?
