Posted on 09/24/2007 4:16:20 AM PDT by Kaslin
Chicago "homer" refs are hosing the Dallas Cowboys... Updated: 9:49 PM 09/23/07 FOX 5 in NYC, Me, 7:05am...MONDAY Updated: 8:46 PM 09/23/07 BIG THANKS to PunditReview and Dean Barnett... Updated: 8:34 PM 09/23/07 <a href="http://ads.townhall.com/accipiter/adclick/CID=000127050000000000000000/site=TOWNHALL/area=TownHall.Web.Columnists.DineshDSouza/POSITION=TOWN_SKY/AAMGEOIP=68.112.78.1"> <img src="http://media.townhall.com/townhall/townhall-logo.gif" alt="" width="160" height="600" border="0"> </a> Ahmadinejad is in, ROTC is out By Dinesh D'Souza Monday, September 24, 2007
President Lee Bollinger of Columbia University is a very open-minded guy, in his own opinion. In inviting the Iranian prime minister Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak at Columbia, he issued this statement. "Columbia, as a community dedicated to learning and scholarship, is committed to confronting ideas...Necessarily on occasion this will bring us into contact with beliefs that many, most of even all of us will find offensive and even odious. We trust our community, including our students, to be fully capable of dealing with these occasions, through the powers of dialog and reason."
So why won't Bollinger allow the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) to recruit on the Columbia campus? ROTC was expelled from Columbia in the late sixties. In 2003 a majority of students said they wanted ROTC back, to give students the choice to serve their country in this way. The Columbia faculty opposed the measure, however, and Bollinger sided with them against the students.
What is the problem with ROTC as far as Columbia University is concerned? Apparently Bollinger and other left-wingers on the faculty can't stand the U.S. military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy concerning homosexuals. Yet this policy, devised and introduced by the Clinton administration, respects the privacy of homosexual soldiers on the condition that they aren't open or flagrant about being gay. The objective of the policy is to maintain morale in the barracks.
Even if you disagree with the military, Bollinger himself says that Columbia is open to allowing ideas that are "offensive and even odious." This is the whole point of tolerance. Tolerance means, “I disagree strongly, but I will put up with you.” If I agreed with what you have to say then there is no question of tolerance. Whatever Bollinger’s ideological disagreement with ROTC, surely students are capable of hearing his concerns and then making up their own minds about whether to enroll.
Meanwhile, Iran's policies toward homosexuals are--shall we say--somewhat more stringent than those of the U.S. military. I visited the website of Human Rights Watch where the country's sorry record is pretty well laid out. A few months ago, to take a random example, the Iranian police raided a home where men were allegedly dressed up as women. The men were accused of homosexuality, detained without a lawyer, and beaten. Perhaps they should consider themselves lucky: in the past Iran has not hesitated to execute homosexuals. Last November two men were strung up in northern Iran for engaging in homosexual acts. (Lesbianism is apparently punished not by death but by public whipping.)
It's interesting to see that Columbia has such wide parameters when it comes to giving Islamic radicals like Ahmadinejad a forum on campus. Actually I don't agree with conservatives who say that the man should be prevented from speaking. Let him come and let him talk. If Ahmadinejad blames America and Israel for terrorism and calls for both to be wiped off the map, he would be doing no more than echoing what many leftists at Columbia have been saying for years. If he takes the more interesting approach of defending Muslim holy law regarding women and gays, he will show the left what it’s in for if Islamic radicalism triumphs in the Middle East.
But if Columbia can make room for Ahmadinejad, Columbia can make room for ROTC on campus. This absurd double standard of kowtowing even to the enemies of America, while blocking the military and other politically incorrect institutions, has got to stop and stop now. Columbia and other universities should be just as open to ideas from the right as they are to ideas from the left and from the Islamic radicals. Isn't it time Bollinger and his thick-headed colleagues realized that free speech and diversity should be valued across the political spectrum? Send me your thoughts at dineshjdsouza@aol.com.
Dinesh D'Souza's new book The Enemy at Home: The Cultural Left and Its Responsibility for 9/11 has just been published by Doubleday. D’Souza is the Rishwain Fellow at the Hoover Institution.
Be the first to read Dinesh D'Souza's column. Sign up today and receive Townhall.com delivered each morning to your inbox. Ahmadinejad is in, ROTC is out By Dinesh D'Souza Monday, September 24, 2007 Send an email to Dinesh D'Souza Email It Print It Take Action Read Article & Comments (18) Trackbacks Post Your Comments
President Lee Bollinger of Columbia University is a very open-minded guy, in his own opinion. In inviting the Iranian prime minister Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak at Columbia, he issued this statement. "Columbia, as a community dedicated to learning and scholarship, is committed to confronting ideas...Necessarily on occasion this will bring us into contact with beliefs that many, most of even all of us will find offensive and even odious. We trust our community, including our students, to be fully capable of dealing with these occasions, through the powers of dialog and reason."
So why won't Bollinger allow the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) to recruit on the Columbia campus? ROTC was expelled from Columbia in the late sixties. In 2003 a majority of students said they wanted ROTC back, to give students the choice to serve their country in this way. The Columbia faculty opposed the measure, however, and Bollinger sided with them against the students.
What is the problem with ROTC as far as Columbia University is concerned? Apparently Bollinger and other left-wingers on the faculty can't stand the U.S. military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy concerning homosexuals. Yet this policy, devised and introduced by the Clinton administration, respects the privacy of homosexual soldiers on the condition that they aren't open or flagrant about being gay. The objective of the policy is to maintain morale in the barracks.
Even if you disagree with the military, Bollinger himself says that Columbia is open to allowing ideas that are "offensive and even odious." This is the whole point of tolerance. Tolerance means, “I disagree strongly, but I will put up with you.” If I agreed with what you have to say then there is no question of tolerance. Whatever Bollinger’s ideological disagreement with ROTC, surely students are capable of hearing his concerns and then making up their own minds about whether to enroll.
Meanwhile, Iran's policies toward homosexuals are--shall we say--somewhat more stringent than those of the U.S. military. I visited the website of Human Rights Watch where the country's sorry record is pretty well laid out. A few months ago, to take a random example, the Iranian police raided a home where men were allegedly dressed up as women. The men were accused of homosexuality, detained without a lawyer, and beaten. Perhaps they should consider themselves lucky: in the past Iran has not hesitated to execute homosexuals. Last November two men were strung up in northern Iran for engaging in homosexual acts. (Lesbianism is apparently punished not by death but by public whipping.)
It's interesting to see that Columbia has such wide parameters when it comes to giving Islamic radicals like Ahmadinejad a forum on campus. Actually I don't agree with conservatives who say that the man should be prevented from speaking. Let him come and let him talk. If Ahmadinejad blames America and Israel for terrorism and calls for both to be wiped off the map, he would be doing no more than echoing what many leftists at Columbia have been saying for years. If he takes the more interesting approach of defending Muslim holy law regarding women and gays, he will show the left what it’s in for if Islamic radicalism triumphs in the Middle East.
But if Columbia can make room for Ahmadinejad, Columbia can make room for ROTC on campus. This absurd double standard of kowtowing even to the enemies of America, while blocking the military and other politically incorrect institutions, has got to stop and stop now. Columbia and other universities should be just as open to ideas from the right as they are to ideas from the left and from the Islamic radicals. Isn't it time Bollinger and his thick-headed colleagues realized that free speech and diversity should be valued across the political spectrum? Send me your thoughts at dineshjdsouza@aol.com.
Apologies about the mess at the beginning of the editorial
Columbia University is no different than the rest of the socialist universilty establishment. When socialism dictates our ethos - there is no room left for aboslutes such as good and evil, right and wrong and Christ vs Allah.
Freedom of speech for everyone!
Except for those who protect that right.
They revel in using their free speech rights - paid for by others of course - to do what children always do, and that is to rebel against whatever is good and decent in society in order to PROVE, to themselves and others, how “powerful” they are. It is nothing but an act of pure narcissism, which is the Leftists defining characteristic. And just look at the attention they get for doing so. They crave the spotlight and will do or say whatever it takes to get in it.
I think Mr De souza’s only error in this well reasoned article is just - reason. Trying to reason with children is a fools errand, and trying to reason with adult children is doubly so.
American's vote for lying socialists and if Hellary is to get in, they'll have to do lots more of it.
Parents of Columbia students pay what? $35K / student / year of their hard-earned dollars to be indoctrinated by these putrid, lying scum?
We should do better, and with D'Sousa's expose', it should be an easier task.
HF
“Dissent is not disloyalty” - the leftist bumper sticker says, unless of course the dissenter is an American citizen who believes in a strong military, and believes in capitalism and freedom.
If Columbia doesn’t allow ROTC back on campus “yesterday”, then it is morally and intellectually bankrupt, like all congressional Democrats, Stalin, Mao, Castro, Chavez, Kim, and other socialists.
Since he is an International Criminal since the Hostage crisis in the 80’s why don’t we just arrest him and have him tried by an International Court?????
Lil Stinky should go face the student body at the Naval Academy or West Point, rather than those bedwetters at Columbia.
As the Gaffer would say, "He's so open-minded his brains fell out."
Columbia University, where Communist brainwashing is sold as education.
He's so open-minded his mind has fled!
Ann Arbor wasn't liberal enough for him!
BTTT
Bollinger is just a garden-variety hypocrite: witness the reception the Minute Men got on Columbia’s campus. When are they inviting other ‘controversial’ speakers like Ann Coulter or David Horowitz?
I believe both these people were at Columbia and had pies thrown at them. I could be mistaken.
Leni
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