Posted on 10/10/2006 8:39:23 AM PDT by freespirited
There is but one thing more disgusting than the video of campus officials and police standing by as student thugs viciously silenced Minutemen founder Jim Gilchrist and the Columbia University students who assembled to hear him speak. That is the unconscionable attempt by Columbia University administrators and the thugs to blame the blatant assault on the First Amendment on the victims whose rights were violated, Gilchrist and his associate Marvin Stewart, and the College Republicans who hosted the two men on campus.
Quite simply, during Gilchrist’s speech, a group of chanting demonstrators suddenly leaped on the stage, unfurled a banner, shouted Gilchrist down and proceeded to conduct a chanting, arm-pumping demonstration of brownshirt thuggery in action. Readers are encouraged to view the video by going to this post by Powerline’s Scott Johnson: www.powerlineblog.com/archives/015459.php . Johnson is absolutely right in observing that “public discourse at Columbia is for now in the hands of intellectual savages. Does the university have the wherewithal to restore the conditions of freedom?”
The thugs should be expelled from Columbia and barred from admission at any other self-respecting university. But frankly, we doubt that Columbia officials will do much of anything beyond delivering figurative slaps on the wrists of the offending students and their accomplices. Too many American academic officials have become cowed by fear of appearing to violate the politically correct orthodoxy that rules most campuses.
Christopher Kulawik, the College Republican president, told The New York Sun he was berated afterward by Columbia University administrators for allowing the speakers to say anything that would infuriate the crowd. It appears from the video of the event that those same administrators evidently instructed campus police to do nothing to stop protesters from taking over the event. The security officers simply stand there and watch as pandemonium breaks out and the First Amendment is torn to shreds by Columbia students. That is an open invitation to more thuggery at future campus events.
The Alice-in-Wonderland logic of the PC orthodoxy that encourages brownshirt thuggery at Columbia and elsewhere in academe was also on display in a subsequent statement issued by the demonstrators who speciously claimed “we celebrate free speech,” but then justified their depriving Gilchrist and the College Republicans of free speech by proclaiming “the Minutemen are not a legitimate voice in the debate on immigration. They are a racist, armed militia. …”
That’s PC in its purest form: We’re for free speech unless we disagree with your views, then it’s just fine for us to proclaim your views illegitimate and do whatever is needed to silence you. One of the organizers appeared on a cable news show and kept insisting that the students didn’t violate anybody’s First Amendment rights because “we allowed Gilchrist to speak for 45 minutes” before taking over the stage. That the students of an elite American school believe the First Amendment grants them to right to decide who they will “allow” to speak for how long is yet another clear sign that something is radically wrong in this nation’s classrooms.
I suspect it may get a little worse before it finally starts to get better.
Lee Bollinger, Pres of Columbia Univ., is a weasel (NRO's 'Weasel of the Year' nominee) and a communist thug. He is all about being politically correct and appeasing these student brownshirt savages.
Bollinger: "Would not assign blame to any individual protester until a probe is complete." ... "Vowed that an investigation into the incident would continue." ... "It's simply too early to rush to any judgment as to whether disciplinary action should be taken."
He and the whole school knows who the perps are. They are on video, they have them bragging on web sites, so they can be found and expelled. But because Bollinger is a communist pig and the students are liberal (and more importantly are facists), nothing will be done.
Columbia and other similar universities are rapidly becoming a thing of the past. Any institution whose claim to importance is based on past greatness is in serious trouble. Just look at General Motors and the Episcopal Church. The "elite" universities of the northeast are no different.
Brownshirts? Not PC. The correct term should be "shirts of color".
Maybe I'm not getting the picture, but freedom of speech does not mean others have to provide you with the pulpit. As a private university (for which people probably pay in excess of $35,000 a year for the privilege of having themselves abused), they can throw anyone off they please.
Look at it from another perspective. Let's say you have some kind of conservative religious university where the main body and administration are all extremely pro-life. Not that they would probably even allow a "pro-choice" organization, but if they did, and they invited the national president of Planned Parenthood to speak, and the students gave her a toss, would that violate her "free speech?" I don't think so, and it doesn't here, either.
We can't have it both ways. If private religious schools can maintain their integrity against ideological encroachment, so can bastions of liberalism like Columbia. Nobody forces anyone to pay to go there, or donate to them. Their prevailing "god" is liberalism, and they're enforcing their beliefs.
Much federal money going to this private university. I think that shutting down free expression is not such a private decision for the university.
Also, this outburst seems to violate the first three things on this list:
Liberalism means hypocracy.
I'm sure you don't mean, "you have the right to remain silent but if you choose to speak "I'll Kill You!".
Then again maybe you do!
October 6, 2006, 4:30 p.m.
Columbia University has always been, and will always be, a place where students and faculty engage directly with important public issues. We are justifiably proud of the traditions here of intellectual inquiry and vigorous debate. The disruption on Wednesday night that resulted in the termination of an event organized by the Columbia College Republicans in Lerner Hall represents, in my judgment, one of the most serious breaches of academic faith that can occur in a university such as ours.
Of course, the University is thoroughly investigating the incident, and it is critically important not to prejudge the outcome of that inquiry with respect to individuals. But, as we made clear in our University statements on both Wednesday night and Thursday, we must speak out to deplore a disruption that threatens the central principle to which we are institutionally dedicated, namely to respect the rights of others to express their views.
This is not complicated: Students and faculty have rights to invite speakers to the campus. Others have rights to hear them. Those who wish to protest have rights to do so. No one, however, shall have the right or the power to use the cover of protest to silence speakers. This is a sacrosanct and inviolable principle.
It is unacceptable to seek to deprive another person of his or her right of expression through actions such as taking a stage and interrupting the speech. We rightly have a visceral rejection of this behavior, because we all sense how easy it is to slide from our collective commitment to the hard work of intellectual confrontation to the easy path of physical brutishness. When the latter happens, we know instinctively we are all threatened.
We have extensive University policies governing the actions of members of this community with respect to free speech and the conduct of campus events. Administrators began identifying those involved in the incident as it transpired and continue to investigate specific violations of University policies to ensure full accountability by those found to be responsible.
University personnel are also evaluating event management practices that are specifically intended to help event organizers, participants and protestors maintain a safe environment in which to engage in meaningful and sometimes contentious debate across the spectrum of academic and political issues. These are some of the many steps we intend to take in the weeks ahead to address this matter in our community.
Let me reaffirm: In a society committed to free speech, there will inevitably be times when speakers use words that anger, provoke, and even cause pain. Then, more than ever, we are called on to maintain our courage to confront bad words with better words. That is the hallmark of a university and of our democratic society. It is also one of our central safeguards against the impulses of intolerance that always threaten to engulf our commitment to proper respect for every person.
I've seen that snot nosed little girl with a big mouth twice on Fox. She showed no respect and was so rude to her elders. You would think she'd get nowhere after she graduated, entered the real world and got away from daddy's money, but she'll get snatched up by the DNC or some other pinko organization who will pay her for her rants.
That is a good speach by the President. Let's see if the actions are consistent with the words.
Don't get your hopes up -- I hear he's a Liberal.
Yes, you are right in the sense that this is not a First Amendment issue; Columbia is not a government-run institution. But the behavior of these student thugs was nonetheless deplorable. They imposed their will on an event that it was not their right to impose their will upon, and they did so in a manner that was absolutely outrageous.
I can't imagine what it is like to be the parent of one of these ill-behaved brats.
Not just websites. I saw one being interviewed on Fox News this weekend. She was scary, a really chilling ideologue who appeared to have had a good bit of professional training.
He ought to demonstrate how much he "deplores" this by having the speakers rescheduled, at college expense, and having a huge crew of burly security guards and police officers, also at college expense, protect the site during the event. Then sue the offending students (who had better be EX-students very soon) to recover the costs.
Probably the only university in the U.S. that doesn't receive federal funds. /sarc
I imagine they're pretty wealthy - Columbia is an expensive school. I have a pretty caveat emptor attitude towards colleges, though - untill they feel the economic consequences for allowing behavior like that, they'll continue to have it. In this case, it seems like the administration actively enabled it. Perhaps that was the point, after all.
True enough, but once the speaker was invited to speak, civility must carry the day. A lively, interesting debate might have occurred when sharp-witted students challenged the minutemen. The problem is, no bright student has much ammo to challenge the minutemen with as they are neither racist or vigilantes. They go to the border, observe and report.
The little Columbian witches on Fox can't challenged Gilchrist, so they spread unchallenged lies about the group in forums where the group can't respond.
And the federal funds Columbia receives means they have some duty to maintain a modicum of decorum.
Rushing a stage and silencing a viewpoint is thuggery regardless of where it occurs.
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