Sunday, May 18, 2014

Hirsi Ali, Condi Rice, Robert Birgeneau--Nails into the Coffin of Acadmic Freedom



Hirsi Ali, Condi Rice, Robert Birgeneau--Nails into the Coffin of Academic Freedom
As the season of graduation of seniors from college and commencement addresses enters full steam
Many students facing student debts, feathering back to nest and wondering where is the American Dream?
There appears to be a very disturbing trend of closing access to any rational discourse
Vocal minorities demanding speakers and degree awards follow the left wing view without remorse
Rutgers under pressure from pickets and sit-ins of the smallest of the mental small
Folded under pressure to cancel Condi Rice, a cowardly act of President who would not stand tall
Brandeis named after a Justice who was the utmost champion of free speech
A university so named one would think rational debate on ideas would encourage and teach
A nail in the coffin of academic freedom driven without shame by a vocal small number of closed minds faculty
Pressured by CAIR, Brandeis folded and withdrew its honorary degree from an outspoken critic of radical Islam and defender of Muslim women’s rights-- Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
At Haverford after protest again by a number of students and faculty against selection of the speaker for commencement address
The former Chancellor of Cal withdrew becoming another example of speech suppressed
His replacement Bowen to his credit tore into the students as “arrogant” and “immature”
Anyone not linked arm and arm or joined at the hip with their views is someone impure
A mind is a terrible thing to waste and without challenges of ideas it withers and dies
Surrounded by thoughts exactly the same, cut off from others different that might question and defy
If so wasted as seems to be the increasing PC trend and contra ideas to suppress
How do our young minds ever develop the skills to difficult issues address?
Ironic that what a speaker at commencement says while students sit waiting in the warm sun
Fades away in terms of memory almost as quickly as soon as the speech has begun
But the images and symbols of any speaker forced by a vocal minority to withdraw
Will last forever on the tombstone of academic freedom where free speech is no longer the driving law.
© May 18, 2014 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet

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