What is happening in our colleges? Pt II

[SilverOneParticipant 440]

My first post to this sub-forum was an essay I wrote on the state of higher education in the United States. Not long after I posted that this news item was posted by Breitbart….
Berkeley Student Newspaper Publishes Essays Defending Violence
This is the type of flawed thinking that this brand of “higher education” begets….. If you have a strong stomach, also read the linked essays. The following is a comment I left on the editorial page of the Berkley “Daily Californian”

Why are they so afraid of words? When I was growing up, my mother always told me when other kids said mean things, “Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words will never hurt you. They may hurt your feelings, but they will never hurt *you*.”

ALL speech (except actual sedition against the government and communicating a threat) is constitutionally protected. It may be hurtful, but you are just as free to openly, publicly, and PEACEFULLY rebut it. It may be “hateful”, but until it actually infringes another’s rights, it is constitutionally protected. If one ACTS on the speech, then that act might be prosecuted, but not the speech. If you feel it is a lie, you have the right to file suit in court, let a jury decide, and claim what damages the judge awards if the lie is proven.

In this case, Berkley students acted “pre-emptively” (remember the movie, “Minority Report”?) with violence, throwing “sticks and stones” to prevent Yiannopolous from speaking. The students had every right to protest, but they crossed the line when they started throwing sticks and stones, and punches and pepper spray, to infringe, not just on Yiannopolous’ right to speak, but on his audiences right to listen (peaceably assemble). Just whose Constitution are they learning about in college these days?

BTW…. There is a pesky little law…. The 14th Amendment, which specifically states that all rights and privileges guaranteed by the Constitution, belong to all citizens of the US, regardless of State. That means that even Berkley, acting under color of California State law, cannot deny the right to peaceable assembly and free speech on government property……

I would love to see this headline….. “ACLU files civil rights suit on behalf of Milo Yiannopolos in Yiannopolos v University of California, Berkley……”

I don’t believe in female magic anymore. And will never again gut myself to make room for it. --Narwhal--

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