A wave of putrid disgust has wafted up and hit me in the face. Being a person who follows the news with a keen eye, I began to notice smaller articles on pages like CNN, MSNBC, and Counter Punch, that were not headline material, but rather minor points of interest for some. These articles dealt in the recent trend of completely expelling free speech from our campuses. I felt and still do feel sick to the marrow that this is happening; here in a land that proclaims it's freedoms over the loudspeakers of the world.
I understand people's sensitivity in a time like this. I understand that their emotions are running high. I do not understand how anyone can justify the suspension of college professors for simply stating anti-war sentiments. It is stated that these professors were making Anti-American comments, and ignores the fact that to trample free speech into dust is truly Anti-American. Our government and constitution are built around the idea that we do not all have to agree, nor should we. That is why we have checks and balances. That is why we have opposing parties in the political system. That is why we can call ourselves free. It is the freedom to dissent, the longing for change, and attempts at reform that improve governments, societies, and nations. It is this ability that holds the potential to improve the world at large. If in fact we are to continue in this trend of killing free speech, for whatever pithy reason we can accumulate, we are in effect, only dealing ourselves a blow that those who oppose us will greatly applaud.
One would like to think, that after the Inquisition, the Salem Witch Trials, the Communist purging of 'traitors', the acts of the Gestapo and Nazism, the Communist Witch Hunts that took place under McCarthyism and the travesty of HUAC that we would have learned our lesson by now. We are proving otherwise. We are proving that we have learned nothing from the lessons of history, and that we have let our hysteria and emotions run amok. Professors all across the country are being suspended for opposing current government policies and actions regarding the war. In government itself there was one dissenting vote against the war, by a representative from Oakland who was placed under constant guard due to numerous threats. Two blocks from my house there have been shootings at a house where a Pakistani lives, a good and hard working family man. During a lecture on Marxist theory, at a class I attend, the professor had to preface his remarks by stating that he was in no way trying to push Marxism on the students, for fear that complaints would be made stating that he was pushing Anti-American/Capitalist doctrines on the students. So, at a time when we should be supporting each other, coming together as many of us have, and embracing our freedoms and differences of ideologies and so forth, many others are doing just the opposite.
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