To give you an idea of exactly how liberal the University of Massachusetts is, near the Amherst campus a UN flag flies in front of the town hall. The American flag is relegated to a corner in town center.
With that tidbit of information, you won’t be surprised to learn that Don Feder, a conservative writer and speaker, could not finish his speech at UMass due to liberal protests. Campus police refused to let the protestors in, but they still did their best to shut down the speech.
Two students said they were protesting the speech because Feder isn’t open-minded enough, and the purpose of college is to be open-minded. However, in typical college liberal fashion, these disgruntled students couldn’t open their own minds enough to actually listen to Feder’s speech. After several interruptions, the event was canceled.
The UMass Republican Club was trying to fulfill the highest mission of the university, which is presenting a forum for the consideration of ideas. And at UMass it would seem the liberals agree with this mission—provided they like what is being said.
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I read the story and found this bit particularly revealing:
ReplyDelete"Feder was notably peeved at the interruption, asking authorities to 'please remove her, if you don’t remove her I’m going to stop speaking,' before chiding the audience with 'you god-damned Nazis.'"
Seems to me Feder wasn't exactly keen on having an open-minded discussion of ideas either.
That said, I agree with you that it is far better to listen to opposing viewpoints and respectfully challenge them rather than to simply close one's mind and demonize those you disagree with.