A speech-free bubble around Bill Ayers
Well, this is rich.
I told you last month that Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers was invited to speak at Florida State University. The FSU president defended the idea by asserting: “Danger lies not in some speaker’s ideas. Danger lies in teaching students that ideas they don’t agree with are not important.”
Sadly, but predictably, conservative ideas with which liberals on FSU’s campus disagree were not important enough to allow within Bill Ayers’ earshot. At the event earlier this week, students and other protesters who objected to Ayers’ speech were hauled off to a separate “free speech zone” to protect Ayers’ supporters from being subjected to dissent.
FSU student Richard Keeth e-mailed me:
I along with about 50 other students and various people from the Tallahassee community were protesting peacefully outside our Oglesby Union Ballrooms (the location of the event) about 1 hour prior to it starting. Other than a few jeers from the Liberals the protest was very peaceful, no physical conflicts or anything even close to that emerged. However, when the FSU PD arrived, they started corralling us and telling us we weren’t allowed to “protest” there. They moved us far away from the event, in what they designated “free speech zones.” I had heard of them before, but never actually witnessed the police enforce it. Apparently on our public University campus, you can utilize your first amendment rights in “zones.” I had assumed America was a free speech zone, but apparently not.
Liam Julian blasts the administration:
If there’s one thing America’s students (especially disadvantaged ones) do not need, it’s to be inundated in classrooms with noxious notions about revolution, violence and tyranny. Every real education reformer worth his salt, whether conservative or liberal, agrees that the ideology of victimization that Ayers preaches is toxic. Pupils learn best when taught reading, writing and math in disciplined environments by teachers who accept no excuses for failure.
So: The harmful and flawed educational notions of a man who hid from the law after bombing buildings in which served our nation’s police, elected officials and military personnel is, according to FSU, protected speech that public money should fund.
But protestations against Ayers’ ideas apparently do not deserve similar protection. The Democrat reported that two men — one dressed as Osama bin Laden, the other as Timothy McVeigh — attempted to make evident their disapproval of Ayers’ views and actions by distributing, outside the student union, fliers mockingly described as “from the terrorist community.” The men were removed to Landis Green, a designated “free-speech zone” that has the considerable drawback of being nowhere near the ballroom where Ayers spoke and, thus, allowing only the free speech that nobody is free to hear. Oh well: At least neither was tased.
The university’s actions are discordant. They are especially so because FSU President T.K. Wetherell defended the invitation to Ayers in part by writing, “Danger lies not in some speaker’s ideas. Danger lies in teaching students that ideas they don’t agree with are not important.”
Wetherell’s first sentence is baseless: History offers innumerable examples of danger lying in the ignoble ideas that certain speakers advance. Wetherell’s second sentence is unobjectionable but was pointedly violated at the Ayers event when FSU police unaccountably transported protesters to campus Siberia.
Taken together, though, his two sentences are superfluous.
For no matter one’s position on Ayers’ ideas, they are not, as Wetherell suggests, “important.” The sole reason anyone outside Chicago gives a hoot about Ayers is because he planted bombs and, decades later, had fleeting contact with the president-elect. When, in 2007, Columbia University hosted the racist Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, its administration could at least justify the invitation by noting that Ahmadinejad, for all his ranting, was a national leader. Ayers has no such clout.
What, then, about protecting campus free speech at FSU? Whether Ayers should have visited campus is less a matter of free speech than of taste and discernment. To civilized and intelligent people, Ayers’ ideas are (should be) plainly foolish; his actions and associations are (should be) plainly revolting. Certainly Ayers can say what he wishes. But the question for FSU’s administration was whether to assent to pay him thousands of dollars to do so in the university’s environs. The administration’s acquiescence, then, signaled not that Ayers’ ideas merited free-speech protection (which they already have) but that his ideas merited promulgation on FSU’s dime.
And — the irony! — at the same time FSU was furthering the disbursement of shoddy thinking under the guise of protecting free speech, it was actively suppressing free speech by banishing protesters to an Orwellian-sounding “free-speech zone.”
Should Ayers have come to FSU or not? Let the debate continue if it must, but let us not pretend the argument is one about the free exchange of important ideas.
Compare how FSU handled dissenters with how Berkeley handled protesters at lectures by Daniel Pipes and me.
File under “Double standards.”
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Trackbacks
- Students Protesting Bill Ayers Corralled in “Free Speech Zone” « American Glob
- Liberals: Free Speech For Me But Not For Thee « Jane Q. Republican
- JABbering Stooge :: Consistency FAIL :: January :: 2009
- Liberal free speech 101: As long as liberals protest its fine, if you protest against terrorists like Bill Ayers, you have no right! | Fire Andrea Mitchell!
- Sheer Lunacy; What Has Happened? « Northern Thoughts And Reflections
- Michelle Malkin » New assignments for the Canadian border agents who blocked Bill Ayers
- Cheat Seeking Missiles » As Ayres Is Booted, Laughs Abound
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Categories: Bill Ayers, Double standards, Education
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Another leftist hot-house flower terrified of being challenged with dissent.
Just BEAUTIFUL FSU… Reminds me of the old adage, “EVERYONE IS EQUAL, ONLY SOME ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS”…
If Ann Coulter were speaking FSU would probably have let protesters into the event itself.
Until parents stop sending their kids to these Brave New World universities where freedom of speech is doled out in small helpings, this will continue to happen.
Nice that the FSU staff seems to be smarter and wiser than the founding fathers.
Well, I guess that they thought that the guy that blows up things would get his feelings hurt by free speech. What in the hell is going on in this country?
You can always tell the facists, they are the ones who refuse to allow any challenge to thier ideas.
Quick, Michelle!
Book a speaking engagement there before the danger from a speaker’s ideas jumps back up!!!
Another liberal-fascist example of “do as I say, not as I do”…
This is so troubling. File it under “double standard”? I don’t care about the double standard so much as the blatant suppression of liberty in America!
Exactly, beachmom; and might I add, to all alumni of these schools, do not send any donations to them!
Money talks, Ayers walks.
Police officers must think Billy is da bomb!
Intolerance from the party of tolerance.
I remember reading Animal Farm (8th grade English), and I recall that the pigs were in charge and all pigs are equal, it’s just that some pigs are more equal than others. What I can’t remember is what status did the other animals have?
I may need to re-read it, just to survive the next 4 years. Find out if I’m a goat, a chicken or a less equal pig.
I’m an FSU alum (2001). My heart is breaking as I read this.
Seems no place is safe anymore from insane libs who want to “educate” with only their own viewpoints.
@ #9, my checks are stopping. I will return my letter with big black magic marker over it:
“ASK BILL AYERS”
…or maybe BHO can send some out of his redistributions.
Maybe “Karl” Ayres will speak here next.
Dzodda: Next time FSU sends you some fundraising correspondence, write back and tell them they won’t get a penny from you since they’re clearly hostile to free speech rights.
There’s no difference between these “Free Speech Zones” and re-education camps, except (for now) a fence and guards. But expect those to come soon enough.
Dissent under Bush was patriotic. Now dissent will be punishable to the fullest extent of the law.
There are honest answers to the leftist rush to suppress all opposition. We have had to use it before.
All honest folks know the answer.
Just another example of why Florida State is a pathetic example of a “university”.
Go Canes!
What I find hard to believe is that Ayers is actually paid to blather on at either his regular position or at a speaking engagement like this. I read something he posted the other day at HuffPo that more closely resembled something written by a disgruntled high school student than a university scholar. (Not suprisingly, most of the comments were in complete agreement with his feeble attempts to make a point.) He certainly has his right to express his ideas to anybody deranged or bored enough to listen but to think he receives public funds for doing so is an embarassment.
On the other hand Al Franken will also soon be getting paid by the public to express his ideas in the world’s greatest deliberative body so I guess I shouldn’t be suprised.
Those who love truth
welcome free speech
Those who can’t handle the truth
try to silence those who speak it.
Isn’t hiring him to speak, giving material aid to terrorists ?
Jeff2161,
Yes.
It wasn’t just about protesting the Vietnam War. It’s always been about him wanting to turn this country into a Socialist/Communist country.
And FSU is now paying him to come indoctrinate college students.
Ever wonder if Obama’s real reason for moving from CA to NY was to be mentored by Ayers?
The only trouble with having Ayers speak is there will be no one there who disagrees with him. Librals are the highest minded, freedom loving people who in reality are absolutely the most domineering, oppressive people in the world.
I am hoping that the folks at FIRE get to take this on.
I’ve got a fund raising letter right in my desk. They will receive no further money from me or my brothers.
My daughter walked in my house with an FSU sweatshirt on last night. I made her take it off. If I believed in burning crap, I would have done so.
I wish I was an alum (for one reason only) so I could fire off a letter that would matter.
what is it about the “liberal” mind-set? It’s suicidal desire, it seeks to experience stockholm syndrom, let’s be coampassionate with terrorists, thugs and other anachist. It’s a death wish?
That would be the United States wouldn’t it? Well no, not to the Left…too bad, once upon a time the Left claimed they owned free speech…
So is karma Bill.
So it karma.
BTW, Bill, if you’re reading this – how’s the dead girlfriend? The one who blew herself up making a bomb you designed and you had to marry your second choice girlfriend? Is that working out OK – she gets enough flowers and dog piss on her grave?
Ayers is a p.o.s. that should rot in hell. And the good news is… one day.. he will.
Honest to god non-zombie, non-sarcastic question for Michelle, if she is reading:
You have spoken on many campuses and have documented some of the unfortunate treatment you have received from protesters at some schools.
What has been your experience with these “free speech zones”? Has a school you have visited ever set one of these up in anticipation of protest over you?* Would you, on principle, not attend a school that proposed setting such up?
*Please note I am in no way comparing MM to Ayers, except for the fact that they both have drawn attention from the other side at such events.
ditto
These are all good questions. The idea of Free Speech Zones is stunning really. Sounds like Stalin on a good day. Free speech is such a huge right, we just can’t allow it to be trampled on.
Clarification:
By “attend” I meant “agree to give a speech at”
Let’s not forget that UM hosted a Spanish language debate before the primaries.
I certainly gave them an earful when they called for donations shortly thereafter and the poor girl on the other end told me she had heard that from a lot of alumni.
And yes, Go Canes!
walterc (#11)
The quote is “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.”
This was painted on the barn wall in place of the previous ten (?-from memory) “Principles of Animalism”. The change happened in the middle of the night, to the surprise of all the non-pigs.
Both Animal Farm and 1984 seem to predict what is likely under the new administration. I hope that I’m over-analyzing, I fear not.
Does anyone know of a comprehensive website that catalogs these kinds of issues at various universities? I’m wondering how my alma maters would compare. (I have a feeling I *know* the answer, but I’d love to read a summary of these things somewhere.)
I do not agree that FSU should have allowed Ayers to speak, but it is done.
That said, it was a student club, using their funds, that paid for his speech, not public or FSU money.
This was also done in 2004 when Michael Moore was invited to speak as well–much to many people’s disgust.
FSU should immediately schedule a counter speech to Ayers.
FSU is a conservative university compared to others in the state—I know as my son attended. This should not reflect on the beliefs of all the students of FSU, only of a radial minority that are present on all campuses.
It is the stance of many colleges such as this that caused me to cease being a member of the MN Chapter of the Penn State Alumni Association and a member of The PSU Alumni Association. My alma mater’s incessant banning on campus of conservative and Christian thought is disgusting.
Someone needs to remind the FSUPD and administrators of an inconvenient fact listed in Article I, Sec. 4 of the Florida Constitution.
It seems kind of clear to me but then I am not a leftist college administrator…
Article I, Sec. 4.
Every person may speak, write and publish his sentiments on all subjects but shall be responsible for the abuse of that right. No law shall be passed to restrain or abridge the liberty of speech or of the press. In all criminal prosecutions and civil actions for defamation the truth may be given in evidence. If the matter charged as defamatory is true and was published with good motives, the party shall be acquitted or exonerated.
I won’t be a bit surprised when Ayers shows up at the White
MosqueHouse.uhhh…fascist take over maybe.
Seems to me most of these tuition paying parents are left wingers themselves…I mean, would you think the students kept it a secret at home and mom and dad are not aware of their children’s political ideas?
now that’s an exaggerated and overstated description of the U.S. Congress.
Florida has universities???? Perhaps they need to let the rest of the country in on it…
MM’s constant cries of victimization get old after a while. She’s starting to sound like the liberals she despises so much.
Excuse me, but where was Michelle crying about victimization?
Or perhaps you don’t have a problem with a state-run university using the police to denying students and others their free speech rights on a public campus because the administration doesn’t like what they have to say?
On January 15th, 2009 at 10:32 am, beachmom said:
If Ann Coulter were speaking FSU would probably have let protesters into the event itself.
—————————————
Care to imagine the reaction if someone threw a pie at our friend Mr. Ayers?
I predict outraged front-page headlines for a month is that happens.
Still, it would be worth it for the video footage . . . which they would show over . . . and over . . . and over . . .
Lan Astaslem (#37):
http://www.thefire.org/
Among other good stuff, this group keeps a running tally of ’speech’ codes at universities across the country.
Unfortunately, these free speech zones are at a lot of schools. It seems like campus police/administrators can only go to extremes–on the one hand, allowing protestors to disrupt the actual speech or otherwise cause problems, or on the other hand, corral everyone into ‘zones’ where they can express themselves. There really ought to be a middle ground–people can protest all they want without disrupting the speaker, but if they do, they are dealt with.
There is no “middle ground” with Leftists. It is their way or else.
MY COUNTRY IS A FREE SPEECH ZONE!
Now that just hurts.
I signed up recently to Media Research Center (mrc dot org) which is a respected and well-researched site that sends daily emails about the left wing media’s bias.
I knew the bias was really bad, but this it’s even worse than I thought. Sign up and keep up with what journalism is today. No integrity and certainly no objectivity.
It makes me laugh when the left wing says there’s no bias. Obama would not have won without it. Fox is the only news outlet that presents both sides, and is not selective about what they will allow us to see or hear.
These are the same liberals that idolized that shoe throwing, anti American Iraqi reporter at the President’s press conference in Iraq?
Yet, in a pique of political “correctness,” they allow an admitted anti American terrorist to speak unfettered and unchallenged.
Note the key words in each paragraph: anti American.
I wish Ayers would come for a walk through my neighborhood.
Irony? I expect we’ll see the motherlode sometimes within the next 4 years. It’s a rich vein that runs deep in this adminsitration so the rewards should be quite promising. They’re already profitable for OmightyO!
Regarding “Free Speech Zones”… from what I’ve read in news reports, colleges and universities tend to protect people like Ayers from dissenting voices, yet tend to permit dissenting voices for speakers such as Michelle and Sean…if not encourage it.
This should not be surprising, given the significant left bias at these institutions.
@#38 – thanks for the info on this. I am still placing a few calls to some people I know still working in the student union there.
I couldn’t believe (it must be a coincidence) that FSU came calling last night looking to update my alumni info and, ask for $ of course. I stated that my support was suspended until I get reassurance that my FSU respects the rights of all students, not just a minority few.
“Education and facts, that we agree with” shoudl be the motto.