Sen. Sawmiller is a champion of free speech

Along with dozens of other students, I attended last Tuesday’s Associated Students of Boise State University Senate meeting.
Normally, Senate meetings are devoid of visitors, but Tuesday’s meeting was packed, and apparently all because of a newspaper article that appeared in The Arbiter.

The article, entitled “Protect marriage from violence – vote yes on HJR2” was written by Jonathan Sawmiller, who also happens to be an ASBSU Senator. I read the opinion article, which sat directly across the page from an article opposing HJR2, and thought it was great that The Arbiter was
presenting opinions on both sides of the issue.

My sentiments weren’t shared by the group of students who filled the left side of the Forum. One after another, they stood up to attack Sen. Sawmiller and the newspaper article he wrote. One student, Kate Neal, who identified herself as an employee of the Cultural Center, claimed that Sawmiller’s plea for students to vote yes on HJR2 constituted hate speech.

Hate speech?

Asking students to vote yes on a ballot initiative is hate speech? Political speech is one of the most valuable and protected forms of free speech, a concept that some students can’t seem to grasp.

Another student, Deni McLeod, spoke on free speech, and the limitations she believed it should have. According to her, newspaper articles such as this shouldn’t be printed because they lead to violence.

She even claimed “free speech killed six million Jews.”

Excuse me?

I thought a guy named Adolf Hitler who stomped on free speech and propagandized and controlled German media was the one who killed the Jews. At any rate, the idea that voting yes on HJR2 is comparable to the Holocaust is ludicrous.

My favorite quote of the night, though, was from Taylor Newbold, a student who also works for ASBSU.

“This article, and Sen. Sawmiller, demonstrated intolerance towards marginalized people. We can’t tolerate this at BSU,” Newbold said.

We can’t tolerate someone’s views because we think they’re intolerant? Wait a minute. Wouldn’t that be … intolerant?

It was apparent that the crowd which showed up to bash Senator Sawmiller has a serious problem with intellectual diversity.

I was disappointed that some students think free speech means student government should shut down opinion writers who write articles that some say don’t support “diversity.”

Personally, I’m glad that Sawmiller has the balls to write what he believes and The Arbiter has the fortitude to publish both sides of public policy debates. That’s true diversity and freedom of speech.

Dallin Welsh is a student at Boise State

DALLIN WELSH
Guest Opinion

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