Inside Higher Ed, a national newspaper about colleges, published a lengthy article about the Pacifica Forum Wednesday. The article is intriguing for a number of reasons. For one, it brings to mind comments at Wednesday night’s Student Senate meeting by Sen. Lindsay Reichardt.
She broke into tears as she told the meeting she didn’t want the Pacifica Forum on campus, saying: “I’m a marketing kid. My biggest fear is that people will come to campus seeking these ideas.”
Juxtapose that with these comments from a University of Houston law professor criticizing the protests:
“While I applaud their enthusiasm, the students took the bait,” he said. “This group wanted attention and by protesting, the students have now given national press to an issue that wouldn’t otherwise be getting attention.”Had students opted to organize a debate of their own or some other kind of “rationed, reasoned, arm’s-length discussion,” they would have brought scrutiny to Pacifica but done so in a way that “didn’t play into the hands of the bad guys.”
Thanks to my colleague CJ Ciaramella for the heads up on the article.
While the Nazis may be the bad guys,it’s moot whether or not the protestors who violently censored them,are any better at all.Try “dictators”,”facists”,lack of free speech,violence,harrassment,and complete lack of sanity and civility.OOOPS,that was supposed to be the Nazis,right?What happened?They never got to say a word.The protestors got to spread their doctrine for them.Thanks,guys,really nice of you to co-operate!Most wonderful facist time I’ve ever had at a rally!uh…which ones are the Nazis?
A lot of the debate about this group revolves around whether the best tactic to defeat it is to ignore it, or harass it and spread lies about it. There hasn’t been much discussion about why anyone would WANT to oppose it. They seem to have accepted the idea that it is a far-right group. It isn’t. It was founded by a pacifist. It started discussing Israel, as pacifists do. The Local Jewish leaders attacked it, like they do. The liberals ran away, like they do. Right-wingers showed up. So what? It’s still an open group, for any viewpoint. It’s a first amendment group. Discussing how to end its mission is a discussion about how to undermine freedom of speech.
Letting Pacifica FOrum sit ignored, causes them to fester and grow. Letting Them go, ignoring them, legitimizes their idea and lets hate groups operate, secure in the knowledge that their ideology is acceptable.
We need to confront hate in our communities. Hate thrives in darkness and we need to bring them into the light.