What "Freedom Of Speech" Doesn't Mean
Leave it to a college professor to be desperately in need of remedial American Government. Greg Lukianoff hands it to to professor Sally Jacobsen of Northern Kentucky University (NKU), "for showing me the most perverted inversion of the concept of free speech I have seen in a long time":
Jacobsen, a professor at NKU, invited students in one of her classes to “to express their freedom-of-speech rights to destroy [an anti-abortion] display if they wished to.” The anti-abortion display had been erected by an NKU student group with permission from university officials. You can see a picture of her apparently actually helping destroy the display (which was a field of approximately 400 tiny crosses) in The Northerner On Line....Thankfully, NKU president James Votruba does not appear to need a lesson from FIRE about what is free speech and what is condoning violent repression of speech:
"Freedom-of-speech rights end where you infringe on someone else's freedom of speech," Votruba said. "I don't buy the claim that this is an act of freedom of speech, to destroy property."
Votruba also told the Cincinnati Post that Professor Jacobsen and those involved could face disciplinary action and even criminal prosecution. "In my mind, this is a serious violation of a faculty member's responsibilities and undermines what a university is established to do," Votruba said. "If people are occasionally offended by points of view on a campus, that's what a university is all about."
Make no mistake: I'm totally pro-choice and anti-fundanutter. But, nobody has a right to shut anybody else up; only a right to speak their piece, no matter how idiotic or offensive it is.
via ifeminist
As stated before, I'm pro-mind-my-own-business on the abortion issue. I feel that if pro-lifers really wanted to stop abortion, they wouldn't be in favor of abstinence-only sex education in schools. They're a bunch of prudes with control-issues who seem to think that since they don't believe in sex before marriage, then EVERYONE -- whether sharing their views or not -- should practice abstinence.
Apparently, these cross-tramplers believe that freedom of speech applies only to the loudest. In other words, freedom of speech only for those who scream loud enough to drown out the opposition.
Patrick at April 20, 2006 8:53 AM
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