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CAMPUS FREE SPEECH? ONLY FOR P.C. BRIGADE
The New York Observer ^ | May 17 2006

Posted on 05/17/2006 10:40:50 AM PDT by TM68

If hypocrisy and doublethink were Olympic events, New York’s academic community would be awash with gold medals.

Two controversies this month have shown the extent to which noble and supposedly immutable concepts like free speech and opposition to censorship can be tweaked and twisted to suit political agendas.

The New School’s president, Bob Kerrey, has invited Senator John McCain to address the university’s commencement ceremony on Friday. Some students are so angry about this that they have organized a petition to get the invite revoked.

Senator McCain’s crime appears to be that he is a conservative. The protesters’ absurd rationale is that having the Senator at the ceremony is not compatible with the institution’s commitment to freethinking. . .

Across the East River, however, it’s a different story. There, graduate students of Brooklyn College, supported by the faculty, have complained long and loud about having to relocate an art show after the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation shuttered it.

The show stayed open for only one day at the Brooklyn War Memorial in Cadman Plaza. The memorial includes a roll of honor commemorating people from the borough who lost their lives in the Second World War.

The college art exhibition features a sculpture of a penis and other sexually loaded material. . .

In response to the enforced closure, the students organized public protests, Brooklyn College’s faculty council passed a motion announcing that its members “deplore[d] this act of censorship,” and attorney Norman Siegel said he would help the students sue the city and the college’s administration.

The message to be drawn from these events seems clear. In the eyes of the academy, removing prurient art from a space that commemorates the dead is censorship. But stopping a speech by a conservative shows a love of diversity.

(Excerpt) Read more at observer.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Philosophy; US: Arizona; US: New York
KEYWORDS: bobkerrey; campus; johnmccain; liberal; protest; universities

1 posted on 05/17/2006 10:40:52 AM PDT by TM68
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To: TM68

NYC is a festering stinkpot of wackjob liberals who believe that no outrage is too small, no tax is too large, and no sacrifice is necessary.

Bob Kerrey must be ticked off about his students' apparent disgust of McCain's invitation. At least Kerry and McCain have fought for to defend their country. Whereas the students are just maggots.

Gosh. Did that sound harsh?

Next!


2 posted on 05/17/2006 10:45:56 AM PDT by RexBeach ("There is no substitute for victory." -Douglas MacArthur)
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To: TM68
Senator McCain’s crime appears to be that he is a conservative.

If being a conservative is a crime, then McCain is innocent.

3 posted on 05/17/2006 10:47:05 AM PDT by Fiji Hill
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To: TM68


If they think McCain is a conservative, they'd be really pissed talking to me...


4 posted on 05/17/2006 10:49:12 AM PDT by Tzimisce (How Would Mohammed Vote? Hillary for President! www.dndorks.com)
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To: sauropod

review


5 posted on 05/17/2006 10:50:11 AM PDT by sauropod ("Heaven on my left, Hell on my right and the Angel of Death behind me" - Dune)
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