Think About It

Free Speech in Academia - How Much?

In the world of academia, we are seeing fewer and fewer professors who support our traditional values.  My personal belief is this sprang out of the turbulent ‘60s and ‘70s when the so called Hippie generation was looking for ways to exert their Marxist beliefs.  I believe they saw teaching and journalism as the two avenues to promote their beliefs onto the American public.

I digress.  Recently, Michigan professor I.S. Wichman, a professor of Mechanical Engineering at Michigan State University, decided to take on a group of Muslim students who were protesting the cartoons that portrayed the Prophet Muhammad as a terrorist.  The students had complained the cartoons amounted to hate speech.

                                                                      

Professor Wichman fired off the following e-mail to the students.

Dear Moslem Association,

As a professor of Mechanical Engineering here at MSU I intend to protest your protest. I am offended not by cartoons, but by more mundane things like beheadings of civilians, cowardly attacks on public buildings, suicide murders, murders of Catholic priests (the latest in Turkey), burnings of Christian churches, the continued persecution of Coptic Christians in Egypt, the imposition of Sharia law on non-Muslims, the rapes of Scandinavian girls and women (called 'whores' in your culture), the murder of film directors in Holland, and the rioting and looting in Paris France.

This is what offends me, a soft-spoken person and academic, and many, many of my colleagues. I counsel you dissatisfied, aggressive, brutal, and uncivilized slave-trading Moslems to be very aware of this as you proceed with your infantile 'protests.' If you do not like the values of the West - see the 1st Amendment - you are free to leave.

I hope for God's sake that most of you choose that option. Please return to your ancestral homelands and build them up yourselves instead of troubling Americans.

Cordially,

I. S. Wichman

Professor of Mechanical Engineering

So far, the college’s board of regents have refused to censure Professor Wichman, but I question whether Professor Wichman would have received this support had he been teaching at any of the Ivy League schools.  Moreover, this appears to be the flip side of cases like that of Ward Churchill and other left-wing professors have made outlandish statements. This brings up several questions regarding academic freedom and a professor’s right to speak out.

Questions:

At what point should a professor be censured for his speech?

At what point should a professor be fired for his political speech?

Can a standards for academic speech even be set?

Brigitte Bardot, the French, and Islam

Sometimes it is easy to forget that we enjoy enormous freedoms in this country.  One of these is the freedom of speech.  The French sex-kitten of the ‘60s and ‘70s, Brigitte Bardot, is being tried for violating France's antiracism laws because she published a letter to then-Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, charging Muslims with destroying France.

Apparently the 73-year old movie star became fed up with the influx of Muslim immigrants moving to France.  France has Europe’s largest Muslim population with over 5 million, who now make up 8% of the population.

French prosecutors are asking the court to fine Bardot about $25,000 and put her in jail for up to two years for saying the Muslim community was "destroying our country and imposing its acts."  The outspoken Bardot has four prior convictions for inciting racial hatred by making controversial remarks about Islam and its followers.  Prior convictions resulted in her paying fines between $1,500 and $5,000.

"I am fed up with being under the thumb of this population which is destroying us, destroying our country and imposing its acts," said Bardot.
Bardot, who is an animal rights activist, said France is being invaded by sheep-slaughtering Muslims.

The fact is, most of the people in the world do not enjoy the freedom of speech and the freedom of the press that the people of the U.S. enjoy.
A few years ago, a person who openly said the Holocaust was a myth found himself in a Canadian prison.  He was convicted of hate speech.

Bardot will have to wait another 2-3 weeks to find out the sentence of the court. 

The questions are:  Will political correctness in this country eventually be given the full force and weight of law?   Will we become like France?   Can it happen here?

Will Obama and/or Hillary End Free Speech?

If the Democrats win the White House in November there exists the real possibility that free speech as we know it will end.  I'm kidding, right?  After all, that's what the First Amendment is all about, right?   No folks, it's real.

The left wing of the Democratic party has longed to shut down conservative talk radio.  Many of them believe radio hosts, such as Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, Michael Reagan and others were responsible for John Kerry's defeat.  If Obama or Hillary is elected in November there is the likely possibility that they will order the FCC to implement the so called Fairness Doctrine.  The Fairness Doctrine works like this:  Because public airwaves are being used, owners of radio and TV stations will be forced to broadcast "balanced" programing.  This is code for censorship.  Station owners will have three choices: 1) Order their talk show hosts to water down their opinions to the point there are no opinions; 2) Add another talk show host to espouse the opposition opinion; or 3) Discontinue all talk radio shows. 

Conservative talk radio hasn't had a problem in attracting sponsors.  Why?  Because they have a large listener base.  On the other hand, liberal talk shows, such as Air America, have experienced low ratings and  wobbly financing.  Under the current system, the left wing is welcomed to talk radio, providing they find sponsors to pay for it.  If the left wing is successful in implementing the Fairness Doctrine, radio and TV stations will face not only oppressive federal regulation, but will be faced with lawsuits from those radical groups who feel a particular station isn't being fair enough.  Watch this one closely.