In 1736 I lost one of my sons, a fine boy of four years old, by the small-pox, taken in the common way. I long regretted bitterly, and still regret that I had not given it to him by inoculation. This I mention for the sake of parents who omit that operation, on the supposition that they should never forgive themselves if a child died under it; my example showing that the regret may be the same either way, and that, therefore, the safer should be chosen.
Best of the Web Today - February 7, 2005
By JAMES TARANTO
Great Moments in Higher Education
A second college has canceled a planned appearance by Ward Churchill, the pro-fascist University of Colorado professor of "ethnic studies" who cheered on the Sept. 11 attacks. Like upstate New York's Hamilton College, Eastern Washington University in Cheney, Wash., is citing "safety and security" as an excuse rather than forthrightly admitting it was a mistake to invite Churchill in the first place. Stephen Jordan, EWU's president, issued a statement Friday:
Two speakers invited to the EWU campus, Ward Churchill and Ron Jeremy, provide this university with a difficult challenge. . . .
We do not see this cancellation as a curtailment of Mr. Churchill's free speech right. Indeed, Supreme Court decisions raise legitimate question as to whether speech that incites panic or an immediate breach of the peace is protected by the First Amendment.
We are canceling an event, not an idea.
Mr. Churchill still has multiple venues for the outlet of his ideas. Neither this University nor the state's taxpayers are under any obligation to provide an appearance venue for Mr. Churchill if his presence threatens the safety and security of this campus.
Mr. Jeremy's appearance is not a security or safety issue, but we did recognize that the program, in its initial conception, inadequately served what the title Eastern Dialogues denotes, as a single viewpoint presentation is not dialogue.
With that in mind, Eastern has enhanced the discussion by providing a more comprehensive discussion of the issues at hand by giving a forum for alternate views before, during and after Mr. Jeremy's program.
With that in mind, Eastern has enhanced the discussion by providing a more comprehensive discussion of the issues at hand by giving a forum for alternate views before, during and after Mr. Jeremy's program.
So who is this Ron Jeremy fellow? The press release doesn't say, but you may remember him from such films as "Buttman at Nudes a Poppin' 7" and "What's the Lesbian Doing in My Pirate Movie?" That's right, EWU is standing up for "free speech" by bringing a porn star to campus.
Blogger Richard Posner (who sunlights as a federal judge and a University of Chicago law professor) has a comment on the Larry Summers kerfuffle that seems apt here:
No one who has spent much time around universities thinks they've ever "encourage[d] uncircumscribed intellectual explorations." The degree of self-censorship in universities, as in all institutions, is considerable. Today in the United States, most of the leading research universities are dominated by persons well to the left of Larry Summers, and they don't take kindly to having their ideology challenged, as Summers has now learned to his grief.
There is nothing to be done about this, and thoughtful conservatives should actually be pleased. As John Stuart Mill pointed out in On Liberty, when one's ideas are not challenged, one's ability to defend them weakens. Not being pressed to come up with arguments or evidence to support them, one forgets the arguments and fails to obtain the evidence. One's position becomes increasingly flaccid, producing the paradox of thought that is at once rigid and flabby. And thus the academic left today.
Or as reader Jay Lesseig puts it, "Freedom of speech makes it much easier to spot the idiots."