According to the Washington Times a “white nationalist” has been given the right to exercise the First Amendment at the University of Florida. This should be one of those, “Why is this news?” moments in our lives. Instead it is a headline event.
What got me though was in the last paragraph.
“Other colleges, meanwhile, aren’t on the same page. A spokesman for Ohio State said Wednesday that the school has denied a request to host Mr. Spencer next month due citing the possibility of ‘substantial risk to public safety,’ putting it in the same category as other colleges that have rejected him recently including Michigan State, Penn State and Texas A&M.”Notice the words in quotation marks. What is being ignored is that the people causing the risk are in the audience, not on the platform. It is not the person expressing unpopular views that is being violent but the people who understand the First Amendment and don’t want it applied to anyone but themselves.
The risk to public safety comes from the left. If the University wanted to guarantee the safe exchange of ideas they would have a security team on hand to arrest anyone in the audience that tried to start violence. I guarantee no one on the platform will be going to jail. If we keep shutting down the process of public debate because one side threatens violence we might as well let them keep the football and go home to our snowflake rooms.
We can’t do that because after they secure the public square they will come for us in our homes.
homo unius libri
The home is already under attack, just from other angles.
ReplyDeleteI guess that means they have already won in the public square. Stay off the radar. Oh, it is too late for that.
ReplyDeleteGrace and peace.