Columbia University + Freedom of Speech

As you all might be aware, Columbia University has invited and will be hosting the President of Iran. You all might also be aware that he was not allowed to visit Ground Zero by city officials. What you might not be aware of is that Columbia University last week DISinvited Jim Gilchrist who founded the Minuteman Project. I need someone to explain this to me.

John McCain said, "A man who is directing the maiming and killing of American Troops should not be given an invitation to speak at an American University".

This is a huge PR victory for Ahmadinejad.

Just another note here and possibly another topic for discussion but I had to get this off my chest... Democratic Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich appeared on Syrian TV and condemned the US for its "illegal occupation" of Iraq. He also praised Syrian President Assad for his human rights record. Talk about treason or at the least spitting in the face of your own country... Sad, very sad.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Proco @ Sep 21 2007, 09:27 AM) [snapback]515720[/snapback]</div>

The University could also have invited Gilchrist when he was disinvited by the student organization if it truly wanted to demonstrate the freedom of speech they are standing behind by inviting ahmadinejad. That would have been very educational.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(eagle33199 @ Sep 21 2007, 09:50 AM) [snapback]515735[/snapback]</div>

In this setting I believe so - it is ANY universities obligation to present as many divergent points of view to its students to expose them to it and allow them to make informed choices. If the University fails to do so it fails its students and in my opinion its basic obligation to them.

What message does Columbia send by inviting Ahmadinejad and not Gilchrist??

And mind you, I am specifically using this example of Columbia University.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(MegansPrius @ Sep 21 2007, 10:07 AM) [snapback]515742[/snapback]</div>

You do not know Mr Bollinger very well - a spineless wonder... In any event we will let the ultimate happanstances of the event speak for themselves. My guess is that Bollinger wimps out, and Aremineihjad spins circles around him. I dont think this will be a fair fight. Again, we will let the facts speak for themselves next week we can revisit this.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hyo silver @ Sep 21 2007, 11:00 AM) [snapback]515769[/snapback]</div>

Not just first glance - at second and third and fourth, etc glances it looks terrible.

I highly doubt his feet or any other portion of his body will be held to the fire. Mr. Bollinger has yet to demonstrate the presence of a spine - and this is just a slap in the face to most of America. Even NYC officials are not letting him go to Ground Zero even though there is a 25 mile range from the UN that allows characters like him to travel in. Funny how the mainstream average intelligent person understands this better than the "brilliant" highly intelligent folk at Columbia University.

Perhaps Columbia will send over some nuclear physicists to Iran as a show of good faith and desire to increase dialog with Iran?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Ichabod @ Sep 21 2007, 11:17 AM) [snapback]515779[/snapback]</div>

Some made a comment about my original post here how Mr. Gilchrist was uninvited while Amenijihad was. I personally think inviting him is wrong - especially in NY City, especially while he is actively helping those who are killing our troops, especially after all the things he has said, especially while he continues his nuclear program, etc, etc. the only invitation i would give him is to JFK and an immediate return trip to Iran. Not even NYU or Yale or Harvard invited this clown.

No need to give him a PR victory or watch him dance circles around Bollinger. No gain in any sequence of events here.

 

Some interesting quotes from todays editorial:

"Meanwhile: As Columbia welcomes Ahmadinejad to campus, Columbia students who want to serve their country cannot enroll in the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) at Columbia. Columbia students who want to enroll in ROTC must travel to other universities to fulfill their obligations. ROTC has been banned from the Columbia campus since 1969. In 2003, a majority of polled Columbia students supported reinstating ROTC on campus. But in 2005, when the Columbia faculty senate debated the issue, President Bollinger joined the opponents in defeating the effort to invite ROTC back on campus." Bill Kristol

Kristol again:"In fact, the introduction with "sharp challenges" by Bollinger makes the situation even more of a disgrace. Now there will be the appearance of real dialogue, of Ahmadinejad answering challenges, which further legitimizes the notion that Holocaust denial, say, is a subject of legitimate and reasonable debate. But if Bollinger had chosen to deny Ahmadinejad's request, or not to dignify Ahmadinejad's appearance by his presence--then Bollinger would have been denied the opportunity to lecture us, in Columbia's press release, to this effect: "It is a critical premise of freedom of speech that we do not honor the dishonorable when we open the public forum to their voices. To hold otherwise would make vigorous debate impossible. That such a forum could not take place on a university campus in Iran today sharpens the point of what we do here....This is America at its best."

Hugh Hewit, "It is inconceivable that Columbia will allow this anti-Semitic blowhard a podium, or in any way add to his prestige at a time when the world is attempting to halt this gangster state's illegal acquisition of nuclear weapons. But what is truly outrageous is that Columbia does not see the deep dishonor it is doing to the men and women killed and wounded by the machinations of this man and the regime he represents. Some of those casualties of Iranian intrigue have come in Iraq just this year.

But Ahmadinejad’s rogue state has been killing Americans for far longer than that, and using terror against us since the presidency of Jimmy Carter."

Victor Hansen,"It is likely (a) that Ahmadinejad was one of the terrorists who took American hostages in 1979, and so helped to start the quarter-century rise of radical Islamic jihadism that blew up on September 11; and (B) that he wants to visit September 11 precisely for the purpose of boasting when back home “I am going there, because I can,†the subtext, if not the overt message, cynically to commemorate what we deserved.

What is stranger is why Columbia university tried to invite a terrorist to speak who denies the first holocaust and advocates a second one. This is not a matter of free speech but of common decency and the most elemental common sense."