LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Stifling speech is undemocratic

OPINION:

As an academic and scholar, I was saddened to read of the efforts by some to prevent Ann Coulter from speaking at the University of California, Berkeley (“Ann Coulter ’Adios, America!’ speech spurs protests, arrests at Cal-Berkeley,” Web, Nov. 21). The essence of democracy is the willingness to hear and debate alternative points of view, regardless of whether we agree with them. Universities, as bastions of academic scholarship and creative thinking, should be the last place on Earth to ban anyone with different perspectives from expressing those perspectives. It is the willingness to conceive of and discuss ideas outside the spectrum of conventional thinking that propels humanity forward. I fear for our society as we dangerously censor and abuse people who disagree with us instead of civilly debating them. This is what happens in fascist dictatorships, not in true democracies.

MICHAEL PRAVICA.

Henderson, Nev.