Columbia Ping
Posted on 10/10/2006 8:52:24 AM PDT by Congressman Billybob
To: President Lee Bollinger, Columbia University
I thought of writing you a letter, but my experience with people as important as you is they seldom answer their mail. So I thought it better to make this a public letter. Those who agree with me can make copies of this and send them in.
Let’s review. On 6 October, there was a planned speech by three representatives of the Minuteman Project, an organization which believes that immigration should be legal, and that illegal immigration should be stopped. They were invited by a recognized student group, and Columbia said it would take care of security.
Protesters of various stripes came to the speech, loaded for bear. When the first man spoke, protesters shouted “nigger” at him. (For some odd reason, the New York Times didn’t report this little wrinkle. You do know that is a very offensive word, don’t you?)
Next to speak was Jim Gilchrist, founder of the Minuteman Project. The protesters rushed the stage, stole his speech notes, and snatched his glasses off. They then crowded the stage with several banners; one said in Arabic and Spanish, “No one is illegal.” Again, the Times was reluctant to report accurately. It only said the banner was “in several languages." One concludes that the reporter couldn’t recognize those languages.
At least two Columbia University policemen were present. I saw them with my own eyes on TV. The police did nothing to stop the takeover of the stage. Mr. Gilchrist couldn’t speak. Your intrepid constables then “took charge” and shut down the event, forcing the 350 people present – most who came to hear the speakers -- out of Roone Arledge Auditorium.
You issued a lame statement about freedom of speech the following morning, and announced that there would be “an investigation.” Today, some of your students held a press conference to justify their actions because the Minutemen didn’t “deserve” to speak.
Does that cover the waterfront?
As far as the investigation is concerned, you do have a VCR, don’t you? Your Assistant can pop in tapes of the speech and press conference, and push the start button. The question is what are you going to do about it?
Do I have to remind you of the purpose of a university, yours or anyone else’s. It is a place where unfettered research leads to advances in human knowledge, and where such ideas are debated in a free speech environment. You have exactly two functions, One is to maintain that university environment. (The other is to raise the money to pay for ir.)
In short order you’ll have a list off students who violated the policies of Columbia by shutting down a public forum. You should also find out why your police did not act. If it on their own initiative, they should be fired. If because of policy set above them, the head of your police should be fired. If the policy goes all the way to the top, maybe you should be fired.
But I am getting ahead of myself.
What should you do with these students? Every last one of them should be at least suspended for a year.
I have experience with such actions. My older brother was suspended from Yale for violation of University policies. A high school classmate was also suspended from Princeton for a year. In both cases, they’d completed their degrees and were awaiting graduation. In case you’re interested, both infractions were minor at the time, and no violation today.
One concerned cutting too many classes. The other involved having a women in his room. In today’s environment, attendance isn’t kept. And all students are free to have consenting mammals in their rooms. But I digress.
Last Friday at Columbia some of your “students” acted like a group home for juvenile delinquents when the director of the home goes out for lunch. If you do not throw these “students” out, then the Trustees should throw you out. And if the Trustees don’t throw you out, then the alumni should throw them out, by triggering the fund-raising bomb.
While we’re on the subject of bombs, given their politics it’s likely the same demonstrators will call on the US to negotiate with Kim Song Il of North Korea. While those students are on involuntary sabbatical, you might suggest they read a good text on the First Amendment, and another on Chamberlain’s negotiations with Hitler which produced “peace for our times,” aka World War II.
No need for you to respond to this. I trust the national press will report what you do, and what is done to you as a result.
Go Ivy League,
John Armor, Yale, ‘64
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About the Author: John Armor is a lawyer specializing in constitutional law, who may again be a candidate for Congress in the 11th District of North Carolina. John_Armor@aya.yale.edu
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Excellent.
Me either, but I'd sort of think they'd be able to spell "illegal", at least with the help of a dictionary or spellchecker, especially when it's the single topic of an aggressive demonstration they're participating in.
It's the unofficial PoliSci course: Destructive Protesting 101.
It's the unofficial PoliSci course: Destructive Protesting 101.
What follows is a graduating class, if they ever do graduate, full of louts.
Fault ? maybe, maybe not..
RESPONSIBILITY? Definitely !
Good to see the ACLU has been all over this situation.
SARCASM.
Columbia Ping
I really should start to spell check.
The Eighth Wonder of the World is that liberal cesspits like Columbia continue to get students willing to pay $160,000 for a degree from same.
We need to look at these antics as one more wakeup call to the need to try to recapture lost resources.
William Flax
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