I just wanted to briefly comment on the disgraceful actions of some students at Columbia University last week.
In case you haven’t seen it on the news. Minutemen founder and former congressional candidate Jim Gilchrist was about to give a speech on illegal immigration when he was shouted down by a bunch of pro-illegal immigration students.
They unfurled banners and yelled at Gilchrist calling him a fascist and a racist, in typical leftist fashion. Gilchrist was forced to cancel the speech due to the students refusal to let him be heard. Here’s a link in case you haven’t seen it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfnn7wTgoE8
Today the students proceeded to defend their actions in two ways. First they positioned themselves as defenders of equality from the big, bad, racist, anti-illegal immigration forces such as the Minutemen. Again, they played the race card so as to simplify an issue, which is incredibly complex, in order to sway the simple minded and their fellow students. As I said, typical.
Then they used another technique that has become standard fare for radicals of all kinds. They defended their actions by saying they were simply exercising their right to free speech.
Ok, no. That’s not free speech, that’s heckling and intimidation. You are a detriment to the Constitution, not supporting its principles, if you drown out somebody else’s free speech, simply because you don’t like the message.
Far-left student groups have been doing this for years now, but only to conservative speakers mind you.
These recent developments should serve as proof that our nations colleges and universities are ceasing to be the open-minded places in which freedom of speech, freedom of thought and diversity are encouraged, as was intended. Instead, they have become places in which groupthink and a one-sided political ideology are encouraged by both student groups and administration. All others are shunned or shouted down. This is scary stuff.
So, all you radical students out there who think that all of us on the right are just a bunch of evil, racist, dupes, let me teach you something that your professors have obviously neglected to mention to you in class.
There is a big difference between freedom of speech and being obnoxious and loud when someone else is trying to tell you something.
Shame on those students at Columbia who participated in this closed-minded hit job and shame on anyone who doesn’t vigorously condemn their bad behavior.
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
EITHER YOU'RE WITH US OR SHUT THE HELL UP.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
10 comments:
Wow, this sucks. Not to play the My College Is Better Than Columbia card, but just last week, Elizabeth Kolbert came to speak about global warming, and the very next night, a conservative speaker spoke (repetitive, sorry) about the other side of the coin, if you will, and I know a lot of kids who went to both, regardless of their political affiliation or stand on the issue. Just goes to show you that Oberlin > Columbia, even though Oberlin is pretty liberal as fuck and has a history of political activism.
Ok.
First of all - the kids are 19, 20. They're excitable. They're going to shout. Shame on them? Maybe. But whatever.
I question the generalized leap to "These recent developments should serve as proof that our nations colleges and universities are ceasing to be the open-minded places in which freedom of speech, freedom of thought and diversity are encouraged, as was intended."
I could do the obvious thing and bring up Central Bibe College, Bob Jones U, etc. But I won't.
NYU was full of left-wing anarchistic, underinformed idiots. It was also full of bottom-line compassion-less MBA conservative fuckwads. The beauty of it all was that they never talked to each other, so no one ever shouted at anyone. Groups just sat in their own private lounges and preached to their own pulpits.
The problem with that analysis is that this kind of garbage isn't happening at conservative Christian colleges.
It happens constantly at universities when consevative celbrities are invited to speak.
It happens in congress too when protesters barge in and interupt hearings with banners and rhyming slogans, or when the president and vp are speaking at national conventions. Pies are thrown as well.
I was excitanble and politically active as well when I was that age, but I wa also smart enough to know that this kind of reaction to a speaker was innapropriate.
It's a left-wing phenomenon, and it has no positive effect whatsoever at our higher places of learning.
Oh, yeah, they threw pies at Ann Coulter. Ha ha.
Yeah, that kind of stuff doesn't do anyone any good.
Though I would argue that the reason these sort of shennanigans don't go down at Conservative Christian colleges is because liberal thinkers and anyone who questions the word of God isn't invited to speak at the school ever. So there's never anything to protest.
People protest on the right, though, too, so it's not JUST a left phenomenon. Go swing by an abortion clinic, there's always a nice batch of folk with signs. Remember the assholes outside of Terri Schiavo's hospital? What about the sign wavers I mentioned before, the ones at funerals for gay soldiers killed in Iraq holding signs that say "America suffers because of your sin," and "Your son is burning at this very moment?"
Who is that helping? How is that contributing to civil political discourse?
You keep saying "protesting." I would argue that these student's actions far exceed "protesting" and that's why it's unique and does not fall into the definiton of free specch. You can say whatever you want, but let the other side have their say as well. These students didn't do that.
By the way, those weren't funerals for gay soldiers. As far as we know they were just soldiers. The group was protesting against the nation as a whole whom they see as too permissive of homosexual behavior.
The group is actually a family of crazys from Kansas, who belong to a small church under the tutalage of the families patriarch. In other words it's a cult.
No, I see what you mean. To strip it all down - A guy was supposed to give a talk, these over-excited douchebags interrupted him, and removed all notions of discourse from the room.
Yeah, that's lame.
But re:the soldier thing. No, here in Florida, it was a gay soldier's funeral. I sent you the article once.
Here's the article you posted. I think you must have misread it.
"SARASOTA -- The Sunday funeral service for a Sarasota soldier killed in Iraq could be turned into a spectacle of screaming protesters from an anti-gay group and the roaring Harley-Davidsons of a nationwide veterans organization.
For the second time in a month, members of the Westboro Baptist Church, a Kansas-based group which claims the United States is being punished by God for being friendly to homosexuals, plan to protest in Southwest Florida. The group, whose Web site says the country should outlaw sodomy and impose the death penalty for offenders, protested the newly formed Gay Straight Alliance at Port Charlotte High School last month.
This time, Westboro is taking aim at the funeral of Army helicopter pilot Kyle Jackson, 28, who was killed Jan. 13 when his helicopter was shot down by insurgents near Mosul, Iraq.
Westboro claims to have held more than 22,000 anti-gay demonstrations since 1991. But in the past year it has tried to connect its anti-gay rhetoric to the deaths of U.S. soldiers in Iraq, holding protests at more than 20 soldier funerals across the country."
2:20 PM
ah.
oops.
well, that's MUCH better than.
Yeah, I'm not sure if that makes them more crazy or less crazy.
Post a Comment