Duke Welcomes a Terrorist

Wall Street Journal ^ | Jan 24, 2003 | Editorial

[The Raven]

Duke University is about to play host to a terrorist. Laura Whitehorn spent 14 years in prison for her role in a 1983 bombing of the U.S. Capitol. She and her fellow self-styled revolutionaries blew up a corridor near the Senate cloakroom as a "protest" against the U.S. liberation of Grenada.

[The Raven]

I never understood why terrorists and anti-Americans get a pass from the liberals. Must have something to do with Marx.

[observer5]

Once you think there is no God, everything becomes up-side down...

[cajungirl]

All Dukies start the email engine. Anyone know where we can email our by now exhausted outrage??

[The Raven]

Is this the same liberal thought process as Michigan??

[Libloather]

Laura Whitehorn spent 14 years in prison for her role in a 1983 bombing of the U.S. Capitol.

What, exactly, are the children supposed to learn from her visit?

[Liz]

That liberals are stupid?

[dennisw]

She gets paid for her lectures. She is signed up with a speaker's bureau. She has been making the rounds of Black Studies Departments. This is how she makes part of her living. She holds herself out as a militant lesbian.

[mondonico]

I'm a graduate of one of Duke's professional schools. I wrote the president a pretty scathing note. Here's the canned, patronizing response, replete with predictable empty exhortations of freedom of expression--another endorsement of the liberal ideal of freedom without responsibilty.

Dear Mr. ________:

Thank you for writing to express your concern about the speaking invitation extended to Laura Whitehorn by the African and African-American Studies Program at Duke. I appreciate your strong feelings on this matter.

Ms. Whitehorn was invited by a visiting professor to speak about her recent work addressing HIV infection in prisons. The program's web site posted a description of Whitehorn as a "political prisoner" without mentioning why she went to prison or that she herself had supplied the description. The program has now modified this description to clarify its source and to provide a fuller context.

Duke, like other universities, does not exert control over or pressure its faculty, students and departments in their selection of speakers. I understand that many people would prefer that we invite only speakers who represent values they regard as appropriate for our students and faculty to be exposed to; some would have us deny our platforms to those who espouse beliefs with which they disagree, or who have acted in a way they find reprehensible. Yet one of our nation's greatest values, from the earliest days of our republic, is the freedom for people to express their thoughts openly, and for others to be able to give them a hearing, even if they disagree. This activity is central to a healthy democracy, and an essential hallmark of our universities.

Members of the campus community invite outside speakers with a wide range of views on many different topics. As an educator who has thought a lot about these issues, I'm firmly convinced that students, faculty members and others in the Duke community benefit from this debate. We have confidence in their ability to analyze and critique the diverse arguments they hear, and to form their own judgments and opinions based on the entirety of their experience on campus. This approach has served Duke and other universities well across the years, and I am confident that it will continue to do so.

Yours sincerely,

Nannerl O. Keohane
President, Duke University

[mondonico]

Here's the relevant e-mail address: president@duke.edu

[1Old Pro]

PROTEST THE PEDOPHILE, CLICK ON LINK BELOW

COLLEGE TRUSTEES O.K. RITTER SPEECH. E-MAIL ACTIVISM NEEDED !

 

[The Raven]

THanks for the update