OPINION:
“Wellesley students advocate hostility on campuses to silence conservative ’hate speech’” (Web, April 20) exposes the eerily Orwellian nature of the events unfolding in our institutions of “higher learning.” At Wellesley College, the case is being made for using force and violence to stifle the free speech of those who “refuse to adapt their beliefs.” In February, students rioted and set fires at the University of California, Berkeley, to prevent an appearance by conservative personality Milo Yiannopoulos.
At Middlebury College, Prof. Allison Stanger was assaulted by a mob of students as she attempted to moderate a talk last month with scientist Charles Murray, who himself was ridiculed and verbally assaulted on stage.
Heather MacDonald, a critic of the “Black Lives Matter” movement, had to be taken off campus at Claremont McKenna College for her own protection when protesters became violent. And just this month, conservative author Ann Coulter’s appearance at the University of California, Berkeley, was canceled due to the anticipation of violence by students. Ms. Coulter has defiantly said she will speak as planned because she has been contracted to do so.
Meanwhile, Harvard University’s LGBT office has issued a brochure making students aware that gender identity can change as frequently as “day to day” (“Harvard tells students gender identity can change ’day to day’: Report,” Web, April 20). The document states that speech which challenges or disagrees with transgenderism is tantamount to “violence.”
Communism and fascism are being promulgated at American universities, and it must stop. The First Amendment guarantees each of us the freedom to express our views. Universities should always be about higher learning and teaching students how to think — not what to think. We must be open to ideas even if they differ from our own.
We are seeing a pattern of violence against free speech in our universities which if left unchecked will dismantle our Constitution and our American way of life.
LORRAINE RYAN
Berwyn Heights, Md.
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