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The leftist view of free speech
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Free speech. It’s one of American citizens’ most important rights – important enough that our Founding Fathers clearly stated it in the First Amendment to the Constitution.
Unfortunately, it seems to be rather misunderstood and misused these days.
Too often leftists believe freedom of speech means only those with whom they agree should be free to speak. During a pre-class discussion last week, one of my fellow students of the liberal persuasion angrily proclaimed that Boise State President Bob Kustra should be fired. His crime? Allowing FOX News Senior Judicial Analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano to speak on Kustra’s weekly show on Boise State radio.
“I couldn’t believe it,” she sputtered angrily. “The whole reason I listen to NPR is so I don’t have to hear any of that conservative crap!” I pointed out that maybe a little diversity of thought was healthy for an institution of higher learning. “But I was so offended!” she returned. “I totally don’t agree with him. I just don’t think that type of thought has any place at a university.”
It was eerily similar to another incident a few months back, when I asked a student why she was tearing down advertisements for a speech about Islam and terrorism by professor and best-selling author Robert Spencer. “I don’t think conservative ideas belong on a college campus” was her explanation.
There you have it – leftist freedom of speech in a nutshell. As long as I believe something, it should be allowed. If I disagree, then it should be censored. And if I pull out the “I’m offended” card, then everyone’s rights are trumped and free speech must be squashed, the Constitution be damned.
It seems ludicrous, but this is the current state of higher education. Calling for censorship of a well-respected judicial expert because he believes the Constitution provides for limited government is acceptable, even expected. Vandalism and destruction of property are OK as long as one is trying to silence an opinion one doesn’t like.
Columbia University withdrew the invitation for Minuteman Project Leader Jim Gilchrist to speak there this fall. Apparently, speaking out against illegal immigration on a college campus “offended” someone and thus the subject was banned. Leftist censorship one, First Amendment nothing.
Columbia also bans the Reserve Officer Training Corps from campus. It just doesn’t feel comfortable with the policies of the U.S. military, so it simply silences it.
Of course, it would never be acceptable to allow students to make their own choice about ROTC. Leftist censorship two, First Amendment nothing.
Whose message, then, would Columbia like to promote? A radical Islamic despot, who imprisons journalists, hangs homosexuals, denies the Holocaust and has vowed to slaughter millions of innocent Israeli citizens? The same tyrant who sends Iranian military units into Iraq, delivering advanced weaponry responsible for killing hundreds of American soldiers?
I know. I had several close calls with some of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s weapons. I watched friends carried off wounded and bleeding from Iranian 122mm rockets. Yet this is the madman that Columbia chose to offer a stage and microphone, invoking the First Amendment.
Columbia has the right to invite whomever it wants to speak, it is appalling that it chose to invite an alleged mass-murdering Iranian despot while silencing the citizens and military of America.
It’s a resounding indictment of the leftist version of freedom of speech pervading higher education today, from the administrators and faculty to the students they influence.
It’s deplorable that students can spend four years at Boise State University and still promote censorship and silencing of alternative opinions.
What’s even worse is that no one taught them any better.
JONATHON SAWMILLER
Guest Opinion
