Posted on 04/15/2005 7:07:23 AM PDT by Flightdeck
A speech about academic freedom turned into a "violation of First Amendment rights," according to Dana Cloud, a member of the International Socialist Organization.
Six people, including one juvenile, were arrested Wednesday night after protesting David Horowitz's speech at Townes Hall at the UT School of Law. The Texas Federalist Society hosted the meeting and invited Horowitz, a right-wing advocate and author of the Academic Bill of Rights, to speak.
Opposition groups were holding signs and speaking out during Horowitz's speech on Wednesday, but when they were told to stop speaking, some took out noisemakers to mark their disapproval of the speaker. Three females and three males were arrested and then jailed under charges of disrupting a meeting or procession - a Class B misdemeanor. The subjects were not UT students.
Cloud, an associate professor in communication studies, attended the speech and witnessed the arrests. She said the situation was ironic.
"Horowitz claims to be for free speech, but he is actually on a campaign to discredit and ruin progressive intellectuals," Cloud said. "In the name of free speech, they are basically calling the police on protesters."
Victoria Corinne Cloud, no relation to Dana Cloud, and Dylan Wayne Vicknair were both arrested for physical action - the use of an air horn. Michael Stephen Hardin, Catharina Elizabeth Perry and Scott Crow were arrested for verbal utterances - yelling and arguing with a speaker. All six activists were released late Thursday afternoon.
Anastasia Breloff, the president of the Texas Federalist Society, and other officers from the society said they warned activists at least three times, each time reiterating the possibility of arrest.
"Protesters chose to disrupt Mr. Horowitz's lecture by moving threateningly toward the stage, shouting at the speaker and blowing foghorns and other noise-making devices," Breloff said in a statement.
Melissa Hotze, assistant vice president of events, was sitting in the last row of the auditorium and said she was frustrated that the protesters would not sit down until the question and answer period to voice their opinions.
"When he was at other campuses, people were throwing pies at his face. We just alerted the UTPD that he was coming, and there might be potential of things happening," Hotze said.
According to Hotze, Horowitz's point was that "universities have a very liberal faculty, and if you are a conservative, you are going to be penalized from your academic freedom."
Horowitz encourages students to report their professors who openly silence the opinion of conservatives in universities.
"The irony of squelching such a protest with police on a meeting on free speech is the fact that Horowitz is part of a growing trend, the new McCarthyisms - disciplining progressive faculty," Cloud said.
LETTER FROM QUOTED PROFESSOR:
Fight Horowitz
I was one of two dozen people who protested the appearance of right-wing ideologue David Horowitz at the Law School Wednesday night. (University of Texas at Austin)
Although the subject of the meeting was freedom of expression, and Horowitz routinely accuses campus progressives of silencing different points of view, he set police on protesters who expressed their disagreement in the style and tradition of unruly civil disobedience. The ironic message: Shut up so I can talk about free speech. Indignant, Horowitz refused to begin speaking about the importance of free expression so long as protesters held signs criticizing him. Six young protesters were arrested and jailed.
Horowitz and his ilk pursue the agenda of silencing the left, all in the name of free speech. He attempts to whip up fear of tyrannical radical professors who, he says, indoctrinate what he sees as hapless, immature undergraduates. (Apparently, he hasn't met my students, whom I respect as adults capable of speaking for themselves and making their own judgments.)
In fact, his crusade for free expression is a cynical sham: Horowitz maintains a blacklist of left intellectuals and activists, arguing that critics of war and oppression should not have the right to teach or protest. His is a freedom of expression reserved for conservatives who - in spite of their side's holding inordinate economic, political, and coercive power - feel marginalized in the face of critical pedagogy.
However absurd and hypocritical, his efforts should be taken seriously as aligned with a series of assaults recently on academic freedom at Columbia University, University of Colorado, and City College of New York. Unfortunately, the threats to our jobs and civil rights are all too real.
As someone (among hundreds of others) whose name appears on Horowitz's Internet hit list, I wonder who the real censors are: critics of the war and feminist professors, or those who have and will use the real might of the police and the state to silence criticism and dissent? Defenders of real freedom of speech and learning must stand together against the new McCarthyism.
Dana Cloud Associate professor, Communication studies Member, International Socialist Organization
PROFESSOR'S RESEARCH INTERESTS:
Dana L. Cloud (PhD, University of Iowa, 1992) specializes in the analysis of contemporary and popular and political culture from feminist, Marxist, and critical anti-racist perspectives. She teaches undergraduate classes in persuasion, social movements, speechwriting, and rhetorical criticism, as well as graduate courses in rhetoric and the public sphere, rhetoric and ideology, rhetoric and feminist theory, and rhetoric and popular culture. Dr. Cloud's areas of current research include the critique of therapeutic discourse, feminist and Marxist theories and politics, rhetoric of "family values," and the rhetoric of the U.S. labor movement.
It's just inconceivable to me that students actually pay to be "taught" by people like this. Maybe we can start homeschool colleges.
"If they don't like conservatives, then why did they go to listen to Horowitz's speech at all? They should have stayed home instead."
Because the goal is to silence Horowitz and anyone else they disagree with.
Dana Cloud: GET OUT OF AMERICA!!!!
LOL - what a hoot!
It is frightening to think about the number of leftist anti-American, anti-christ professors who are teaching in America's colleges. The scourge of the 60s have risen to places of honor in the teaching of Karl Marx and Lenin.
Hilliary Clinton is an example of their Marxist teachings. No matter how far she pretends to move to the center, she'll always be a leftist. Her professors did their jobs well. And we in America will pay dearly in 2008 and beyond.
Pray for W and Our Troops
I once went to the University of Maine to hear a lecture from a Chinese dissident, several chinese students booed him during his speech and made wild accusations about him. This reminds me of that episode. The students I witnessed were obviously beholden to the Chinese goverment, just as these sheep are beholden to their liberal masters.
Horowitz and Coulter are made of sterner stuff than I am. I'm afraid if I spoke in such a setting, I'd charge off the stage and strangle someone.
PROFESSOR'S RESEARCH INTERESTS:
Dana L. Cloud (PhD, University of Iowa, 1992) specializes in the analysis of contemporary and popular and political culture from feminist, Marxist, and critical anti-racist perspectives. She teaches undergraduate classes in persuasion, social movements, speechwriting, and rhetorical criticism, as well as graduate courses in rhetoric and the public sphere, rhetoric and ideology, rhetoric and feminist theory, and rhetoric and popular culture. Dr. Cloud's areas of current research include the critique of therapeutic discourse, feminist and Marxist theories and politics, rhetoric of "family values," and the rhetoric of the U.S. labor movement.
Sounds like her teaching interests could be summed up as "How to make a nuisance of yourself".
I was thinking about encouraging her students to do so and witness the hypocrisy first-hand. Do you think it would be inciting disruption to hand out fog-horns to the students in the front row of her class? God, that would be awesome.
I look at that picture and I think, "You ain't seen nothing 'til your down on a muffin and you're sure to be changing your ways."
I said this the other day but I will plagarize myself because I think it applies here too:
Pretty soon the priority of action over theory will win out and then the fascist mode will become immediately and indelibly associated with American Liberalism. Then it will be too late for everyone. Unfortunately, the Wellstone funeral, pie throwing, personal insults and utter lack of regard for property, rights and the rule of law will continue to be seen as the necessary, preferred and officially condoned 'style' of the Democratic party in the United States. Always remember, practice is the result of doctrine and the more violent and primitive expression and style of Liberalism in the United States is a mirror image of its continued and further departure from reasoned and acceptable political discourse in this country. Their open hostility to authority is too telling. The Democrats will come to a place where it will be easier to deny their doctrine, to modify their organization or change their leadership than to hide or change the style of the party. You don't need to be too keen to see the path they have been on for years now, and if you know your history... you have seen it before. Beware!
Haven't you had any combative students challenge your non-communist-loving historical perspective during class?
From the Statesman
Police detain six at UT protest (of conservative David Horowitz speech)HHH
One minute! You didn't get the communist professor's inane rant, though. I'll call it a tie.
Where are the parents here? What kind of parents would let their child hang around a law school?
I'm surprised the AAS didn't have that on the front page. I had to dig for the article today. They ADORE commies and libs.
America is infected with a virus called "socialism." America is very sick. Unless something is done, she may die.
This poofter prof is a lamer. Muslims are much more entertaining when they try to suppress free speech about the sordid life of their hallucination plagued prophet
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.