At Some Colleges, Students Must Keep Their Pro-Life Opinions to Themselves
Of all the rights covered by the First Amendment, the right to distribute political literature is one of the most important. Indeed, without the efforts of pamphleteers like Thomas Paine and Samuel Adams, America as we know it might not have come into existence at all. These men risked everything to spread the ideas in which they believed — and as a result, our nation has a tradition in law and custom of protecting pamphleteers.
That is, unless you are on a college campus.
Take a recent incident at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio. During National Breast Cancer Awareness Month last October, Sinclair student Ethel Borel-Donohue waited until after her Probate Law I class was over (she is training to become a paralegal) to pass out around 15 flyers that discussed studies linking birth control and abortion to breast cancer.
Unfortunately, the climate for free speech on many campuses being what it is, you can imagine what happened next. According to Borel-Donohue, she was called before the chair of her program, county domestic relations judge Michael Brigner, and told that her flyers had offended someone in the class who had an abortion and that Borel-Donohue had no right to pass out any materials in the classroom, notwithstanding the fact that class was over. (I should note that when Borel-Donohue e-mailed Judge Brigner to confirm what he said in their conversation, he refused to do so — always a bad sign.)
If anything, Brigner was understating the power over expression that Sinclair Community College has unlawfully arrogated to itself. Its student code of conduct actually bans all distribution of literature at Sinclair except for “recognized student organizations after registering with the appropriate college official.” That’s right: you need the permission of school authorities to pass out pamphlets at Sinclair, and even that “privilege” is reserved only for groups who are “recognized” under the school’s rules.
There is simply no possible justification for a public college in the United States to ban all distribution of “unapproved” literature, everywhere on campus. And it’s hard to think of a reason that passing out literature in a classroom after class would be disruptive enough to justify a ban. After all, at most colleges, classrooms not in use for instruction are used for a variety of meetings and activities, and nobody is forced to stay around to receive the literature. Yet Sinclair has defiantly stood by its policies.
A similar controversy recently took place at Princeton Theological Seminary in New Jersey, where literature comparing the abortion rate in the African-American community to genocide sparked outrage among students, calls for punishment, and a declaration from the seminary’s dean of student life that from now on, literature could no longer be distributed without administrative approval.
In this case, objecting students and administrators claimed that the pamphlets were racist. One was quoted as saying,
There was a lot of devastation for me, psychological damage, injury, because I saw this as social bullying. People need to understand that racism is not dead.
And according to the same article,
A statement from the seminary said it “does not tolerate racial discrimination” and “has policies that both protect freedom of speech and preclude racial harassment of any kind.”
Those claiming to be offended focused on the use of imagery and symbolism in the pamphlets — a picture of a noose and a mention of the Ku Klux Klan among them. But it appears that in the rush to condemn the pamphlets and those who distributed them for being racist, few actually took the time to read the pamphlets. Indeed, the article featuring the noose illustration concludes: “Abortion and population control have taken a devastating toll on the African-American community.” How do I know this? I found the article online, along with the entire 12-page pamphlet, which opens with an introduction from the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s niece, Dr. Alveda King.
Whether or not you agree with the message of or studies cited in the pamphlet, it does not appear to be driven by animus towards blacks. Is it too much to ask of wannabe censors — including the administration of Princeton Seminary — to actually read what they wish to censor and not just look at the pictures?
Of course, I say that with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek. Since anyone with a modicum of sense would realize from reading even a short excerpt that the pamphlet was not intended as a racist screed against African-Americans, we are left with the conclusion that the real problem that Princeton Seminary’s administration and students had with the pamphlet was its controversial views about abortion.
The same is true at Sinclair Community College: the problem was not that Borel-Donohue saw fit to pass out literature on campus, it was that she chose to pass out the wrong kind of literature. And while Princeton Seminary, as a private religious institution, is free to embarrass itself by pretending that a controversy about abortion is really a controversy about race, the students and taxpayers of Ohio who financially support Sinclair Community College have a legal right to expect better from their institution.
Americans have the right to demand and get basic honesty and integrity from our institutions of higher education. Public universities must be made to follow the First Amendment and allow dissenting ideas; private institutions must be held morally accountable to their own values, which rarely include institutional dishonesty about the motives of their own students. Much has been made of a possible “higher education bubble” recently. With incidents like this, is it any wonder if Americans are starting to wonder if college is really worth it?
Unfortunately, since Princeton Seminary is private, there are no 1st Amendment issues involved. Like other such “seminaries” like Union Theological, they are nothing more than Marxo-Fascist propaganda centers, designed to put America-hating, Jew-hating scum into clerics collars in dying, formerly “mainline” Protestant churches.
Private lost it’s meaning a long time ago. Unfortunately.
It started with “public accommodation” laws. And now even a private owned bar cannot allow smoking in most states.
So I would be of the opine that a “private” university has no right to exclude the rights of any person they allow on campus. Especially the most basic rights.. speech and the right to carry arms.
I fear that the position of the Left in the universities has grown too strong, too deeply entrenched to be challenged successfully. However, the universities need not be liberated; they can be bypassed as well. Their influence over young Americans depends on those young folks choosing to attend them, and a contrary trend, driven by financial and intellectual factors among others, has already begun.
Universities today are for autonomons by autonomons. I can attest from personal experience that getting a degree does not prepare you for the workforce. These college graduates come out fully indoctrinated and then come up hard on reality. In my field, ROV’s, no one cares what school you went to, they only care if you can do the job.
When we have a little down time we will sometimes play cards or other games. We used to play Trivial Pursuit but no longer because I kept winning all the time. The crew would even bring out new editions because they thought I had memorized all the cards. You see I never completed college but was born in 1951 so I have a double advantage. 1. I actually had a pretty good fundemental education which has allowed me to continue to educate myself. 2. I was actually alive and remember what happened for a lot of the questions. To be truthful I always suck at teh sports and popular culture questions.
Rich, ITA and I have a similar background. I never made it past 6th grade due to issues that cut short any formal education. Instead I eventually got a GED, for which I only had to study math to prep – everything else was pretty much common knowledge if you read books & papers. I did then go for computer training, which got me started in a very successful career (I’m now semi-retired). I was tuned into Rush Limbaugh the other day, and he said something similar in his background. I wonder how many conservatives sidestepped indoctrination in some way.
There is one truth that cannot be denied. All of our problems today were brought to us by College Educated individuals and most came from the privlaged Ivy League schools. I doubt we would be in this trouble if Plumbers, Carpenters, and other tradesman were actaully running things. Again most of these guys run thier own business and whatt matters to them is what works and not some pie in the sky theory. Sure there would be mistakes, but at least they would learn from them, a trait remarkably absent from our Intelligensia.
“Workers of the world, unite?”
I have a B.S. and an MBA in Technology Management, and I’m no screeching liberal, thank you very much.
You can get a good education if you’re looking for one. However, many students go to school because they still don’t know what to do with themselves, and they hope that maybe they’ll meet some really cool people in college and ride their coat-tails. These are the future minions of this country.
The latter group are highly impressionable. Leftists know this. This is where they get their training.
We need to reclaim control of our schools. We need to bring our colleges back to REAL liberal educations, not the ersatz nonsense that passes for one. We also need to teach these future minions of America how to think for themselves.
Saying a liberal education is the root of all evil is like saying money is the root of all evil. It is not. Theft, murder, lies, and so on are at the root of evil, not the vehicle that thieves, murderers, and liars use.
To richb313: Pretty sure you meant “automatons” and not “autonomons”. Other than that, spot on.
Thanks for the correction. Spelling is not my forte and sometimes I can’t even get close enough for spell check when I use it. It can be somewhat limiting when you have this great phrase or sentence but just can’t the words on paper, especially when I rush. Being partially blind does not help either.
When I was a child in the late 50′s and early 60′s, I would read of purges of college professors in communist Russia or China. I was appalled. Now I find myself wishing for the removal of every Marxist indoctrinating, internal enemy, off of our college campuses here in America.
The Left is a cancer on the body politic.
“The Left is a cancer” would’ve been sufficient.
And, because “animus” is neutral, instead of: isn’t it properly: “. . . . be driven by evil animus towards blacks . . . .”, or: “. . . . be driven by a bad animus towards blacks . . . .”, and so forth?
please delete that of mine, above
And, because “animus” is neutral, instead of: “. . . . be driven by animus towards blacks . . . .” in the second page, isn’t it properly: “. . . . be driven by evil animus towards blacks . . . .”, or: “. . . . be driven by a bad animus towards blacks . . . .”, and so forth?
Yes, I too prefer the first two primary meanings, but it seems the word is now used almost exclusively to mean 3 : ill will, antagonism, or hostility usually controlled but deep-seated and sometimes virulent : ANIMOSITY
synonym see ENMITY
The public is finally beginning to understand that we actually have ‘tenured’ teachers in public schools and how the inability to fire them, with the added insult that they willo be able to retire early, receive outrageous benefits and the entire system is bankrupting the taxpayers. much their union has bankrupt so many states, it seem. Maybe we should also look at the concept of ‘tenure’ for ‘educators’ and administrators.
Tenure in universities were intended to protect the concept of ‘freedom of academic speech’. A faculty member had no fear about his views, he had tenure an
d no one could fire him for it. It has resulted in just the opposite.
Colleges are filled with liberal like-minded faculty; the individual departments and administration look for liberal thinkers and Conservative views are unwelcome. Radical leftist faculty are welcomed, especially if they are from certain minority groups endorsed by as ‘politically correct”. The fact that students are prevented from expressing their own conservative views should be no surprise to anyone.
At great cost, we send our children off to colleges believing they are receiving well-rounded educations. The reality is quite different.
“Well-rounded” educations, along with common sense, ended when 60′s radicals took over colleges, universities, high schools, elementary & even pre-schools in your ordinary, average, everyday, Marxist coup. Now the progeny they DIDN’T abort carry on the tradition of “banning” any & everything that’s not “up to liberal code.”
It was going away much sooner than that. Dewey’s evil influence was seen in public schools at least as early as the 40s, and many of those 60s radicals were the firstfruits of that crop.
The situation at most college and universities is not as bad as people think. The situation is far, far worse. Most universities are a waste of time and money.
If you have children or grand-children of college age, steer them toward colleges that are still interested in teaching their students the western tradition, as opposed to indoctrinating them with Leftist (or Right-wing) propaganda. Good, even excellent schools, usually religious, still exist — they are the last hope for civilization.
At least people are now seeing that a “higher education” isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Save your money and invest in a business (overseas) instead!
I hired people for about 45 years and if I learned one thing early on about U grads it was this, stay away from them unless for specific training requirements, geologists, accountants etc. And when choosing those stay away from the high grade score types as they usually lacked work ethic and practicality on the job. Why, because the academic part always came so easy they never learned how to work. The best description I have heard to date is: they don’t know how to work and they can’t seem to work and think at the same time and are always complaining about their student loans, but then I guess I would be bitter as well if I had just spent 4 or 5 years in school and came out as stupid as when I started.
My consensus in talking to other business owners today is it seems you have to go through about a dozen or so Grads to find one good one. Other than for specific training you can only get at a university your best chance at getting a good job is Tech School. Unfortunately by the look of what they are turning out today [universities] it seems the goofy end of the liberal’s arts mentality has invaded all sectors.
Glass, I agree 100%! A liberal arts college degree gave me ONE thing only: the confidence to KNOW that college grads were no smarter than I. That’s it!
When I got into the Real World, I discovered that employers weren’t interested in hearing my college-learned ideas…they just wanted extraordinary results! I worked for 3 different companies…two Fortune 100 and one small. In all 3 companies, I advanced to positions that reported directly to the pres/owner. Be enthusiastic, work 100 hrs a week, and bring in outstanding results. Know where to GET the info, know how to WRITE the info, and know how to SPEAK the info.
Before entering the Real Workforce, I studied at 5 different universities. None religious. I can’t remember ANY OF US giving any credence to our professors’ personal opinions on anything! We regurgitated facts, in order to pass exams. Most profs were pathetic speakers and we students basically just fought to stay awake during class.
Most students are pro-choice NOT because their profs or schools are pro-choice. They’re pro-choice because they see fellow students’ lives completely destroyed by crises pregnancies. It’s that simple!
College just ain’t that influential!
To comprehend the depth and scope of this problem, one must go back forty years, to the era when county domestic relations judge Michael Brigner was being educated. Today, he undoubtedly considers that he is educated, learned in US Constitutional law, and is competent as a sitting judge. As reported, he obviously is not. He may have never been, for his entire career. This truth would shatter his self image.
Now consider, two generations later, the senior White House staff, Cabinet and Agency Heads, Senators, Deans and Full Professors, and Appellant Judges, who are both ignorant and hostile, to basic American freedoms. They spring from a common liberal educational system which produced people who can hold that 2 + 2 = 5, without discomfort.
It is often difficult to accept reality, but this can lead to an understanding of the problems we face. One is the schism in thinking, between people who were spared this education, i.e. worked in the real world, vs. those who prospered from it, i.e. gravitated to the closed world of academia or government.
The Leftist virus infests another one of societies basic institutions, turning that institution into an incubator of more virus to infest ever more institutions. There are two treatments for the virus of Modern Liberalism – 1) Reality and 2) Conservativism. The Liberal education cartel will have to be utterly destroyed and the Liberal opium dens (education, media, 501C criminal organizations) will have to be opened up to the light of day and the poor souls languishing in their bowels detoxed and sobered up.
Also, throwing feckless RINO compromises at the Liberal virus is like treating cancer with over the counter aspirin – It may make the patient feel a little better for a very short while, but the cancer will inevitably kill the patient.
The ruthless Left are utterly opposed to human rights for innocents. Utterly opposed to human rights for the most vulnerable amongst us – unborn children. They are despicable.
Hey, why not talk about it. The right to kill innocent defensless humans, even after birth has been well established by our president when he referred to it, as only a Harvard Law trained culture of death operative could – it was the “intent” of the “anti-mother” person that mattered. Not to be mentioned was the length of time such intent lasted, Could one kill her failed aborted child weeks after the attempt? Perhaps months or years?
It is way past time to attack these disciples of deceit (emanations from penumbras indeed)truthfully, for what they are -murderers, the worst of the Nazi mindset has been glorified in America with 53 milllion down and the death panels yet to add to the totals. In Germany many claimed not to know about the ovens -in America there is no excuse -just evil lies.
during the work week abortion clinics, of all kinds and many paid for with tax $$, are cranking them out.
then on ‘holy days’, they close the doors so everybody can go to their churches and worship their god.
this action, in itself, constantly reminds me that Heaven will not be crowded.
“Unfortunately, since Princeton Seminary is private, there are no 1st Amendment issues involved”
I would respectfully disagree. Our friends on the Godless left would merely point out that thee University accepts students whose educations are supported by government grants and student aid – therefore, there are fundamental 1st ammendment rights.
But, this is not about legal games (for they have a political or legal answer to all of those) but about human dignity and decency and I’m afraid that too many have thrown those God-given obligations the once over and discarded them for hedonistic convenience.
“The politics in academia are so vicious, because the stakes are so small.”
More than anything else, universities have always had the attitude that they are granting you a boon by allowing you to attend. The truth is, if you are paying tuition, you are the CUSTOMER. Maybe if we focus on that, many of these problems will go away. Start suing to get your money back when you do not get a proper education. Businesses, too, should publicly declare that graduates in certain fields and/or from certain universities will no longer be hired. They are consumers, too.
Unfortunately, it is not just universities. My grand daughter had to bring to high school a quote fromt the Calif. Ed. Code because a teacher was teaching her views during the Bush years. Her mother followed it up with a one on one meeting with the school’s superintendent because the teacher then discriminated against her. Luckily, fellow students secretly video’ed the teacher on their phones and gave the video to the supt. Of course, the teacher suffered no consequences for her illegal behavior. But, I bet she thinks twice before doing such things again. It was odd, though, she never really understood that what she was doing was wrong and illegal.
Color me completely unsurprised. I’m a recent graduate myself, and though I attended a small private college, many of the faculty members were heavily leftwing and made no secret of how it colored their viewpoints. I have fond memories of a professor stopping a lecture on the Fall of Rome to make Sarah Palin jokes; pointing out the irony was tempting but, unfortunately, pointless.
Bring up abortion? Don’t bother–you’ll get shouted down, and nobody will ever actually be convinced by your arguments.
I have three degrees in chemistry, and I was a prof for nine years. I did NOT have to put up with very many of the problems I read about in academia. Let’s face it, math is math and chemistry is chemistry, no matter what. Maybe we could concentrate on these majors, and let how-to-pass-out-papers-in-the-public-school-classroom-for-teachers courses get scrapped. Ditto with business courses. I wish I could bring my chemical engineering father back to life to teach people the facts of business life. He told me that business courses teach you what you learn on the job anyway. I heard something along the same lines from an uncle with an MBA AND a Masters in Chemical Engineering. Stick to what counts.
That would also be true of foreign language majors. Verb conjugation and vocabulary are pretty straight forward, though the literary courses can allow for more political discussion. But so much is focused on the nuts and bolts of grammar and writing/speaking skills, that at least it used to be insulated from alot of the social engineering and ideological training going on in other humanities classes. Of course, these days with the budget cuts at universities, foreign language is the first to go. Maybe there’s a political reason why?
As for chemistry, I would note that even more recent textbooks in chemistry and other hard sciences are not immune to recent fad scientific theories. I saw one recently that talked about global warming quite authorititatively. So I’d say there is some filtering in even to those disciplines.
A funny thing to mention about the seminary not reading the fliers but only looking at the pictures. Has anyone noticed the way fast food menus have been moving away from lists of items available for purchase to all pictures? I have such a hard time figuring out menus all in pictures anymore, and I was wondering if the change was because reading ability is dropping in society.
The decline in education in general in the U.S. can be traced to several sources. Two in particular are public unionization of educators and tenure. These are not mutually-exclusive. Tenure deprives society of any checks and balances vis-a-vis standards. When I was in college I found that educators basically used students for research for which they took credit for…Basically, the four year liberal institution is a dinasaur. The same level of education can be garnered in one year online…for about 10 cents on the dollar.
We cannot reform our educational system as long as tenure and unions exist. They are directly responsible for deteriorization of the U.S. educational system. Private institutions…while more flexible and generally more innovative…are still influenced by their competitors in the public sector….and therefore basically dumbed-down as well. Why? There aren’t enough of them. As long as you have tenure and public unions in education…you have an agenda that supports educators at the expense of those being educated…because priorities must be made. Divided loyalties must be accounted for.
The world is changing at a pace much faster than the U.S. educational system can accomodate…because change is resisted where powers are entrenched. That would be tenure/unions. The nature of the product….an educated individual is changed from one who is enlightened…to one who is processed. The individual gets spam instead of steak….because with a dash of math and a smidgeon of science comes three ounces of agenda and two parts politics. To transform education in America…the tapeworm which is public unions and the hookworm which is tenure must be terminated.
I have often wondered what this country would look like or whether it would have even existed had the “right” not to be offended been in existence throughout its history.
Of course, there is the other side of the issue. One could wonder what might happen if students tried to circulate pamphlets about being pro-choice, use of birth control, or that creationism is not based on science at such places at Liberty University, Bob Jones University, or even BYU.
Instead of speculating, why don’t you do this and report it? Otherwise, you should keep your “what ifs” to yourself, as they are not helpful in the slightest degree.
Tell us what happened, Steve-o. Or is your comment just speculative crap?
War Dog and Smoke want some proof: do a Wikipedia inquiry of Liberty University and then check under political clubs for the May, 2009 revocation of the campus Democrats charter on the grounds that the university didn’t like the Democratic platform.
There is also the issue of the athlete being expelled earlier this year from BYU as he admitted to having pre-marital sex with his girl friend. That’s a no-no on that campus.
War Dog: asking me to keep my “what ifs” to myself assumes I am going to do your work for you in checking both sides of issues.
It’s been done many times. The result is quite boring: They pass out their stuff, engage in a few discussions, sometimes heated, sometimes not, and that’s about it.
Truth doesn’t fear lies.
Greetings:
Nanny Statism: Bullying the passive-aggressive way.
Abortion on the QT and on College Campus
The state of Massachusetts, always on the cusp of societal change for the worst, is now in the teenage sex and abortion advice business and shilling for Planned Parenthood. Some of the advice offered by the state-sponsored website, MariaTalks.com, includes presenting abortion as a piece of cake and advising teens on how to get one on the sneak.
A teens “sex hotline” is also available.
The Bay State’s Department of Public Health has been funding MariaTalks.com to the tune of $100,000 a year since 2008 and has finally been called on it by an anti-abortion group, the Massachusetts Citizens for Life. That organization’s VP for educational affairs, Linda Thayer, says, “The commonwealth is using taxpayer money to tell kids how to get a secret abortion, and that’s wrong.”
No kidding.
The site, produced by the AIDS Action Committee. contends abortion is “more common than you might think” as well as “safe and effective, though some people may experience temporary discomfort.” It minimizes the risks while adding, “The reality of getting an abortion is much easier than it seems here” and oversimplifies the procedure as, “when the contents of the womb (uterus) are removed,” sort of like an abscessed tooth.
“Maria’s” most insidious advice to teens goes beyond what even Planned Parenthood, publicly, advises. Marie counsels kids, “It may be really hard for you to imagine talking to either your parents or a judge about getting an abortion, but there are people who can help you through it.” Then “Maria,” who doesn’t really exist, advises there are ways to get around state law and shuffles them off to PP.
Lest anyone thinks this is a pro-abortion scam, Maria also gives her advice in Massachusetts high schools. As Charles Skidmore, principal of Arlington High School, says, “I’m assuming because it’s from the Department of Public Health, it’s balanced information. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=4215)
Mr. Shibley omits that both these pamphlets contain medical information about a link between breast cancer and abortion. Anyone with a modicum of sense can google these claims and see that organizations such as the Journal of American Medical Association, the American Cancer Society, the New England Journal of Medicine have refuted any link between abortion and breast cancer.
There’s no doubt that we should have free and open discussions about issues on our campuses, but when a group uses questionable science and scare tactics to push an agenda it gives one pause.
Pro-Life supporters should have a right to their own opinions, not their own facts.
@Lefty: Not only did I mention the alleged link between birth control and abortion in the third paragraph of my article, the scientific accuracy or validity of the studies cited in the pamphlet is irrelevant to my article. Indeed, I made this point later in the article, saying, “Whether or not you agree with the message of or studies cited in the pamphlet, it does not appear to be driven by animus towards blacks.” You are very right that people can use Google to research these studies and draw their own conclusions, but Sinclair CC seems to want to make sure that doing so never even occurs to its students.
As for Princeton, it decided that the pamphlets there were “racist” – a decision that appears to have no basis in fact and that is independent of any scientific studies discussed in the pamphlet.
Anyone with a modicum of sense can ask their vet how to reduce the chances of their dog/cat/horse/insert-name-of-any-mammal getting breast cancer.
The answer will be immediate and certain: Get it fixed. Why? Because any vet knows that mammals simply are not made to endure one menstrual cycle after another. The excessive bathing in female hormones that results from NOT being pregnant or nursing for most of the reproductive years greatly increases the likelihood of getting breast cancer.
Well, except in humans, of course. Those biological principles just don’t apply to liberated women, you understand. Somehow, using birth control pills and abortion to keep pregnancy from interfering with the monthly cycle is completely without health repercussions in humans.
And we know that the medical establishment would never allow politics or money to influence what they say about it!
Yes, we can trust them to be completely objective and scientific!
Sure we can!
“Most students are pro-choice NOT because their profs or schools are pro-choice. They’re pro-choice because they see fellow students’ lives completely destroyed by crises pregnancies. It’s that simple!
College just ain’t that influential!”
Twaddle, says I! Abortion has a TERRIBLE consequence on a woman’s body and soul (conscience, if you will). Carrying a child to term and either keeping or giving it up for adoption IS a viable option.
The left has made killing (MURDERING!!!) a baby so easy with a simple twist of words.
In the aggregate PJM needs to put an end to all of this po-life nonsense once and for all. This is what is KILLING the entire right wing effort.
Obama and his minions are busy destroying the USA’s economy with failed green idiocy, drilling moratoriums and inept foreign policy. These things are causing gas prices and food to go up.
The left needs to be stopped. It however cannot be stopped when the right wing is focused on social conservative issues. Why? Because these cannot be won, ever, they’re a complete waste of time, and they do little more than alienate the voting bloc necessary to put an end to the socialists.
PJM wake up and try to grasp the notion that social conservatives aren’t the majority and aren’t the key to stopping the socialists. You guys seem to have the same comprehension of the world as does a squirrel watching a shuttle launch. Quit publishing abortion articles. This is simply idiocy.
@randomengineer: Neither FIRE nor this article takes a position on abortion rights. However, we most certainly do take the position that students on college campuses ought to be able to freely discuss this contentious issue and advocate for their side of it, whatever side that may be. Of course, this applies not just to abortion but to any number of contentious political topics. Bucknell University’s censorship of a protest against President Obama’s stimulus bill comes to mind: http://fir.ee/ijK7l2
#28, I agree 100%!!!!! 100%!!!!
If Catholics & evangelicals keep pushing their social issues on everyone else, we’re gonna lose elections…again…and again! Keep it up and we’ll end up with abortions AND socialism!
#24 lolly: “abortion has a terrible consequence on a woman’s body and soul….” And you’re a woman with personal experience??
“carrying child to term and either keeping it or giving it up for adoption is a viable option.” I agree, but how to deal with a pregnancy should be the woman’s choice. I agree that women and men should use birth control. Of course, there are those religious groups who oppose use of artificial birth control……….
#25 randomengineer: I think you make some good points. Unfortunately, there are those who post on PJM who would rather see the country go down the tubes economically if they can’t get their way in having their fundamentalist religious views imposed on everyone.
subordinating “economics” to “life” is not an unreasonable position. However, the central point is that the majority of colleges refuse to allow pro-life points of view to be equally and freely expressed…period. The issue is censorship. If the issue were whether or not global warming is man-caused….the results would be the same…censorship. Liberals not only support only their side of the issue..they deny that another side of the issue even exists. Censorship on college campuses can be overt or subvert. I have always been conservative. I had differences with a certain psychology professor..who was entirely liberal. He admitted that my grade was lower than it should have been..but that my conservative point of view made him uncomfortable and he disagreed with it. The strength of the argument in theory is not in its orientation…but in its substance….unless you were in this particular professor’s class. Bias and censorship are rampant on the college campuses….and have been for decades. How long? About as long as tenure has been around.
LMAO – where were all you anti-woman screechers when Bush the Dumber was restricting political expression to “Free Speech Zones.”
@PrattleOn, Boyo: FIRE’s mission is limited to higher education. Confining political expression during events like political conventions to “free speech zones” is practiced by both parties and is certainly an insult to the First Amendment, but unless it happens on campus, it is not within FIRE’s mission. FIRE has challenged many horrendous campus free speech zones when applied to people of widely differing political viewpoints, as a quick search on our website will attest. I have done just such a search here: http://fir.ee/i0SZLo .
You said it Rich, you’re absolutly right. We have WAY TOO MANY educated idiot’s ruining this country !!
I should think the situation far worse.
I’m a professor in a respected southern university, private and formerly Protestant.
My sense is that unless one is teaching economics or political science, to express conservative views in the classroom is simply unacceptable. Cowardly administrators are partly to blame. The bigger problem is insane students. Leftist kids are simply too easily offended by statements that do not accord with their divinely revealed dogmas about the world. They are also quick to denounce heretics. Even if chairs and deans would sometimes prefer to tell complaining students to grow some more skin, they are often too cowardly to do so.
In just the last few years, among the many other heretical honors I’ve earned, I can proudly count two official reprimands for the crime of suggesting that NPR’s coverage skews left. In one instance, the heretical proposition was especially grievous, as it was expressed in an ‘especially offensive manner’ (to cite the official documentation), namely, that ‘NPR does agitprop for the DNC.’ That special offense also earned me an official warning not to express ever again any political views in the classroom. I gather that this phrase ‘political views’ is some sort of new technical expression, meaning roughly what we used to call ‘well-documented and well-argued facts.’
It only gets worse….
I’ve also had pious students seek my termination for (i) offending them with the ‘irreverent tenor’ of my treatment of the history of a certain Middle Eastern religion; (ii) suggesting that many older Americans were alive in the year 1979 and have jaded views of the current Iranian regime; (iii) not thinking it entirely moral to kill all men, women, and children who happen to be both Jewish and Israeli; and (iv) suggesting that a certain scriptural book in Arabic should be studied like any other book written in the middle ages (that is, having the temerity _not_ to presuppose that a certain Middle Eastern deity himself personally wrote it).
In the last instance, when the dean refused to cast me into outer darkness, students took their case to the Student Senate. Said deity likely lost on appeal only because one of our department’s infidel majors was president of the Senate — and clearly part of the Masonic and Zionist conspiracy to subvert said Religion of Peace.
My university has a relatively conservative student body. I can only imagine what it must be like to teach in more benighted lands, like California. I’ve never been granted an entry visa, so thankfully I’ll likely never know.
As for the center-right professors of the humanities at my university, all three of us are kinda partial to tenure these days.
It’s usually the liberal arts faculty and studies that produce the “flaming leftists”.
I have a MSME and went to a Very well known college in Mass. But, I’m as conservative as they come. Most sciences require critical thinking, which serves as an effective shield against the liberal hive-mind.