Sep 24 2007
Re: Iran, a memo to Duncan Hunter, NYC & State Gov’ts…
This moronic kerfuffle over Ahmadinejad’s rant at Columbia has jumped the shark. Now, both Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) and the NY State / NYC Governments want to punish Columbia University by pulling their funding and through other censures and sanctions. Hmmmm…. Well, well, well, remember this…?
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Hmmm…. where might that be from? Anyone..? …Beuller? Anyone..? Oh, RIGHT! The US Bill of Rights. The most important part of the US Constitution! That text up there? It’s The 1st Amendment! I’ll bet if you look around your offices, you might find a copy somewhere. (Hint: Ask one of your staffers who knows how to read… )
Last time I checked, both the (clearly mentally ill and/or mentally deficient) congressman and the NYC/NY State pols invovled swore basically the same oath: “To protect, uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America” (and in the NYC/NY State case, the laws of the State of New York). I wonder, are they smart enough to get what that oath means? (’guess not…)
Seems pretty clear to me, they’re all blatantly, and with malice of forethought violating the law, and their oaths of office by threatening Columbia University over this event.
When are these childish, petty, ill-informed buffoons going to learn that the only way to fight hateful speech is with better, more informed, smarter speech..?
Ahmadinejad is clearly no Boy Scout. No matter what side of the aisle you are on with regard to Iran, letting Ahmadinejad rant away didn’t really change anything, and, judging from his performance, he didn’t help his own case one little bit…
2 Responses to “Re: Iran, a memo to Duncan Hunter, NYC & State Gov’ts…”
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mr. zeitgeist,
this is my first time to the site; it was recommended by a friend. enough history. Congress is not passing any law sanctioning Columbia University, NYC is simply pulling funding for asking Ahmadinejad to speak. People in the country need to stop confusing “the right to free speech” with “the right thing to do.” Just because I can walk around on my campus proclaiming that I am the second coming of Jesus Christ doesn’t mean it is right. And to comment on Ahmadinejad’s elusion of the nuclear questions, just answer the f*cking question. Everything Ahmadinejad said was complete plagarism of left wing bull sh*t.
To your first point, I think if you re-read the article you’ll see that Duncan Hunter and others in congress are, in fact, introducing legislation to withdraw federal funding from Columbia University. The idea the the federal or state governments would punish speech by using the power of the purse is repugnant and contrary to all this this country stands for.
Regarding you other point about whether or not it’s “right” for Columbia to allow such speech: You may not like the fact that Columbia gave Ahmadinejad a platform to speak, but our 1st Amendment was written exactly to protect speech that might not be liked by the government. Whether or not you consider it “right” or not is immaterial. To use your example, if you want to parade around proclaiming yourself the second coming of Jesus, have at it! However you cannot force me to listen to, or accept you are in fact Jesus. The same holds true of Ahmadinejad appearance at Columbia. No one held a gun to your head and forced you to listen.
When we have the government (Federal, State or local) dictating what is or is not an acceptable topic for public discourse, we will be exactly like Iran or Singapore, China, or any other state that is so insecure that it cannot tolerate differences of opinion or ideas that run contrary to its official state dogma.
By giving Ahmadinejad his 15 minutes in the spotlight, Columbia (with the exception if the poor performance of Columbia’s President) allowed the public to see how out of touch the Iranian President is… More speech is always a good thing: from crazy people it allows us to see and understand how crazy they are, and from good people it allows us to get the benefit of their insights. At the end of the day, you have to ask yourself why are you so afraid of letting Ahmadinejad speak? In the end, did he help his own case or hurt it?
I would suggest that you do a little reading and exploring of history - first about the history of American government. The Federalist Papers is a great place to start — It’s a series of essays in which Hamilton, Madison and Jay debate the merits of the US Constitution to a skeptical public before its adoption in 1789. From there look at the history of Russia and the Soviet Union, China, and other countries where the state dictates thought and speech.