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  or
now, no one has been fired or locked up for joking about bombs or
criticizing President Bush," the Chronicle of Higher Education
informs readers this week in an article called "Terrorist Attacks
Put Academic Freedom to the Test."
For now.
Yet it would
seem that internment camps for professors are on the way, judging
from the breathless story by Robin Wilson and Ana Marie Cox in the
October 5 issue. They report several cases of "stunning intolerance"
aimed at faculty members.
One example:
Robert Jensen, a journalism professor at the University of Texas
at Austin, penned an op-ed for the Houston Chronicle the
day after the terrorist massacres. "My anger on this day is
directed not only at individuals who engineered the September 11
tragedy but at those who have held power in the United States and
have engineered attacks on civilians every bit as tragic,"
he wrote. The university administration has done nothing to Jensen
— he hasn't been fired, placed on administrative leave, or
told to clean out dormitory bathrooms on Saturday mornings. Instead,
something far worse has occurred: He's been criticized.
This is apparently
out of bounds. Journalism professors, after all, have many valuable
ideas to contribute to a national conversation on terrorism. Their
ideas are so valuable, in fact, that criticizing them should not
be permitted because it might have a chilling effect on free speech.
If that logic is hard to follow, consult George Orwell.
The best Wilson
and Cox can do to support their thesis of "stunning intolerance"
is describe the sad tale of Richard Berthold, a University of New
Mexico history professor. "Anyone who can blow up the Pentagon
gets my vote," he said, shortly after the attacks. Students
complained — complained! — and an alumnus has sued, saying
Berthold broke a state law by advocating "sabotage, force and
violence, sedition, or treason." The lawsuit's a stretch, though
it's worth noting that Berthold's words would have caused a scene
at airport security even before September 11.
There are a
few other examples, but you get the point: Several professors have
written and said incredibly stupid and offensive things in the wake
of September 11. Their words have come under close scrutiny, often
from 19-year-old students. Rather than defend their words, however,
the tenured radicals have chosen to change the subject and scream
about an assault on free speech.
In fact, all
the evidence points to free speech flourishing on campus. The Chronicle
sites only two examples of school administrations cracking down
on faculty members: Orange Coast College in California is investigating
a claim that a professor called four Muslim students "murderers"
and Henry Ford Community College in Michigan is looking into a charge
that one of its professors got into a physical confrontation with
a student.
The Left is
always searching for martyrs, and it would probably like nothing
better than to have a few of its faculty allies pushed around for
saying controversial things. This would offer more proof that America
persecutes dissent and help sustain anti-American views at a time
when anti-Americanism is unfashionable. Yet it's important to remember
that the only people who've been silenced recently are the 6,000
peopled killed on September 11 — you know, the ones whose deaths
are understandable and whose murderers deserve votes.
On the Site
Ramesh
Ponnuru on the United States, Israel, and the blame game.
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