Tuesday, March 21, 2017

It's A Good Start

I'm glad to see Harvard picking up the ball and running with it:
Eleven Harvard professors and one fellow have signed a statement affirming a commitment to engaging with—and opposing efforts to “silence”—those with opposing views.

The statement, entitled “Truth Seeking, Democracy, and Freedom of Thought and Expression” is co-authored by African and African-American Studies Professor Cornel West and Robert P. George, a Princeton professor. It was published on the program’s website on March 14, and over 600 professors, students, and college affiliates have signed the statement as of Sunday...

“It is all-too-common these days for people to try to immunize from criticism opinions that happen to be dominant in their particular communities,” the statement reads. “Sometimes this is done by questioning the motives and thus stigmatizing those who dissent from prevailing opinions; or by disrupting their presentations; or by demanding that they be excluded from campus or, if they have already been invited, disinvited"...

“This is an issue of broad national significance,” (former Harvard Medical School Dean Jeffrey) Flier said. “It really is pretty focused on the core issue of what should be the approach of the universities in particular to freedom of speech even on issues that would be seen as controversial or a source of major disagreement.”
I hope this message travels all the way to Berkeley, home of the campus free speech movement a generation or two ago but now home  to fascist attempts to stifle the free speech of those with whom the liberal students object.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Amen. While my opinions are just as left as most of my friends, I like to think that I am more tolerant of conservative opinions than most of my colleagues are. And it disappoints me when I get flak for saying anything good about a republican politician (ex: when I tweeted something about how I thought Mike Pence won the VP debate) or voice support for parts of any conservative bill. Not only is it un-american what is happening on many liberal college campuses, but I think it even further drives division in our country. Liberals get more left when they are in a virtually all-liberal environment, and the republicans that get alienated in those left-wing environments just engender even more resentment for the left within themselves. Glad that those Harvard professors are taking a stand.