Posted on 07/22/2005 7:38:38 AM PDT by Millee
Washington State University’s web site calls the school “an ideal place to live and learn” and promises prospective students that instead of “smog or traffic jams,” they will find “an easy-going pace and eclectic college-town atmosphere.”
Here’s something else WSU students don’t find much of on the Pullman campus – freedom of speech. Hecklers who shout down speakers at WSU sometimes do so on tax dollars. Hitler used Nazi thugs called “Brown Shirts” to silence opponents as he sought power in pre-war Germany. Today at WSU, the people paying the hecklers are called “administrators.”
Here are the basic facts of this incredible event: Black student playwright Chris Lee staged his intentionally provocative production of “Passion of the Musical” at WSU April 21. He warned potential ticket buyers beforehand the play was likely to offend everybody because, as he later said, “the whole point of the play was to show people that we’re not that different, that we all have issues that can be made fun of.”
Sure enough, a group of Mormon students peacefully protested the production outside the theatre, but inside the First Amendment took a beating as 40 mostly Black protestors repeatedly shouted “I am offended” and threatened audience members and the cast. Guess who paid for the protestors’ tickets? WSU’s Office of Campus Involvement (OCI).
At one point, Lee took a microphone and asked campus security to remove the protestors. The officials declined to do so and suggested instead that Lee change the lyrics to one of the play’s songs that especially drew the ire of the hecklers.
WSU President V. Lane Rollins later defended the hecklers, telling the campus student newspaper they “exercised their right of free speech in a very responsible manner by letting the writer and players know exactly how they felt.”
Then Raul Sanchez, OCI’s Director, investigated the incident but concluded no action was needed to discipline the hecklers because “the mere fact that such an outrageous play was produced, though lawful, was a provocation.”
Sanchez also suggested Lee was himself responsible for the hecklers’ conduct because he “spared few social groups from the play’s abundance of slurs, swear words, epithets and derogatory language,” then tried to evade “all responsibility for intended and unintended impacts on the audience and the WSU community.”
As a result, not only do WSU students now know campus administrators will not protect their freedom of speech, those same officials are encouraging more such violations. As David French, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, which is aiding Lee, observed: “Washington State’s defense of this vigilante censorship will encourage students to unlawfully silence others whenever they feel offended.”
As disturbing as is the fact WSU bought tickets for the hecklers knowing in advance that they were likely to disrupt the controversial play, and as difficult to believe as it is that WSU’s president and another high-profile administrator absolved the hecklers of blame, what is truly dangerous about this incident is the role of campus security and WSU’s favored method of avoiding future such controversies.
It’s bad enough campus security refused to enforce the First Amendment. They also took the next very large step of invoking police power in an attempt to censor the play, even as it was being presented! The next even larger step after that, of course, is using the police power to enforce pre-production censorship, AKA “prior restraint.” Oh, but that could never happen here in America, you say?
Tell Sanchez, who has already put the student playwright on notice. Sanchez doesn’t dare call it censorship. In fact, he almost appeared obsequious about it, telling Lee three months ago: “If you decide to stage a similar performance in the future, this office strongly encourages you to think long and hard about the possible reactions of your audience and the entire community …No one should seek to censor you but it is not unreasonable to expect you to act more responsibly in anticipating public reactions to your theatrical productions. This office stands ready to help you do that.”
And just to make sure there was no doubt in Lee’s mind about his orders, Sanchez added this instructive suggestion: “If you put on any more plays, please seek us out well ahead of time, so we may help you develop a constructive framework for anticipating and responding to public reactions to your work.”
Those, my friends, are the words of a nascent American Stalinism.
They sure tolerated the hell out of that play, and the first amendment.
So, guy whom the school is named after, Washington right? What did he fight for again?
I'm suprised that many WSU students were sober enough to make it to the play to begin with.
(my sister went there)
At one time, there was just ABC, NBC, and CBS news. Their message was the only message that ever got to the voters in this country. The left had a 40 year free reign.
Then came competition - another version, and chance to decide. Look what happened. The nation became enlightened, they became wiser, and they chose differently.
Is having an alternative education source for parents who love their children and want to protect them from the liberal poisons really that bad????
What about the people who paid for their own tickets and wanted to see this play?
Do they get their money back?
Do they get their money back?
Nope. It goes straight to the DNC.
Time for the US Minutemen to start to confront these Commies and bring them to justice - according to the US Constitution.
Political correctness is designed to silence anyone from speaking out against any liberal special interest group.
(You're free to attack Christians, pro-lifers, 2nd amendment supporters, family values, etc. if you wish. It's politically correct and encouraged.)
What about the free speech rights of those on stage? What happen to their rights to the same free speech?
>>I'm suprised that many WSU students were sober enough to make it to the play to begin with.
Hey! Some of them studied. ;-) [go cougs]
When I was there as a grad student, there was one enterprising student who set up a hot dog cart outside the bars near all the Frats. He made a bundle from what I understand.
Two love-to-see-it-happen choices here:
1) The audience and cast start chanting "Tough $h!t!, Tough $h!t!" ad finitem or until the protestors give up
2) Everyone in the audience, or at least the biggest ones, walk over and hand them a dime with instructions to call someone who cares.
Until the normal people start pushing back, these creeps will continue to run roughshod over them.
Mmmm. Beta-dogs. I visited her once when she was still in school (2000). We spent the evening at Shakers and then got beta-dogs on the way back to her house. Man they were good. . .
I was there a LONG time ago. Got to see the Pullman and WSU police do a high risk traffic stop from my dorm window. Four cops with guns drawn.
People were shouting "shoot 'em!" out their windows.
WSU is a very DIFFERENT place than the UW. I liked the Cougar Gold and Viking from Ferdinand's. They were always welcomed gifts.
DK
It does sound a scary at first reading, but I have a feeling that there is more to the story than is told in this article. My guess is that there was some long standing controversy over whether or not the play was to be allowed on campus and the compromise was that the offended groups would be allowed to protest.
Just a guess.
Response: The reasons could be legion. For example: the 'administators' in question are decadents-they need ever increasing stimulation to achieve the desireable feeling of aliveness. They could be degenerates, i.e. simply indifferent to any form of order i.e. demoralized, whipped dogs. They could be hysterics in that some federal agency threatened their funding unless the school allowed the expression of black rage, so they actively recruit those with "rage." They could be histrions i.e. "playing" at running a college. As stated before the possibilities are endless as to WHY!
"Washington State’s defense of this vigilante censorship will encourage students to unlawfully silence others whenever they feel offended."
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