UW-Madison Infringing on Free Speech… Again
My alma mater has always been big on trying to make everyone feel warm and fuzzy inside. They think they need to be every student’s parents. They want to protect everyone that steps foot on university property from feeling hurt, challenged, wrong or inadequate in anyway. They don’t want to make their students better people; they want them to feel good (I should mention they only want to do this if you are a liberal. If you’re a Republican they could care less if you feel “welcomed”). Case in point: this is the same university who, time after time, is going to bat for a professor who has some very radical ideas about 9/11 (basically that Bush caused that catastrophe himself). Now do I agree with that professor? Hell no. But will I defend his right to say what he wants? Yes. THIS is what the First Amendment is all about.
For anyone who knows UW’s sordid past on speech codes, this newest program should come as no surprise. Ann Althouse blogs today that the university has launched the program “Think. Respect.” as a way for students, faculty and profs to look for, and report, any signs of harassment to the administration for further review. This goes beyond your usual harassment policies. This is basically saying that if I get into an argument with a Democrat about how stupid some of their policies are, and in the process they feel offended because I don’t agree with them, they can go download a form and report me to school officials for harassment. This is a new low for the university.
I am sick and tired of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and all of the administrators sitting on Bascom Hill thinking they can rid the campus of people feeling hurt or offended. They can’t. They are not the warm and fuzzy police. A university is supposed to be full of debate and arguments and ideas. People should feel free to speak up in class if they disagree with what someone else has to say. They should not worry that they’ll be reported to the administration for forming an opinion. I don’t like much of what liberals and Democrats will say to me. Do I go hide in a corner and cry because they are arguing with me? NO! I fight back. In fact, I’m offended that the university is enacting such a program to infringe on my First Amendment rights. Can I report them to themselves? I mean what’s next? Are they going to require all students to wear microphones and have everything they say recorded and reviewed by a panel for anything offensive? Why don’t you just remove my brain and insert a sensitivity chip?
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