To Mr. Caughran "So what?" continued

Submitted by Rick Bright (United States), Nov 21, 2002 at 04:33

You've missed the point. It's not as narrow an issue as the possible war on Iraq. There is a large class of people, college faculty, who are supposed to have the intellectual and ethical attributes to present both sides of political issues without egregious bias. Instead, college campuses have become Leftist propaganda mills disgorging anti-American misinformation. Not only are opposing viewpoints unsolicited, but they are ignored and often forcefully suppressed. Groupthink, canonized by the Left , is the only acceptable form of thought. Anyone who disagrees is marginalized, ridiculed and shunned. Thus the anti-university is perpetuated.

In order to get back to a forum where ideas are exchanged freely, some draconian changes must be instituted. First, I would end tenure. No one has a right to virtually iron-clad, guaranteed employment. This would make it much easier to terminate employment of faculty who abuse their positions or who are no longer assets to the university. (Don't weep for them, their fate is no different from thousands who are 'downsized in the private sector. Besides, they can always start their own think tanks as so many conservative history and political science PhDs have been forced to do.)

Secondly, as baseball pitcher John Rocker can tell you, even free speech has its limits. A professor should not be permitted to say or print whatever he likes under the auspices of the university. Noam Chomsky should not be permitted to speak out against America as a faculty member of MIT, but he is welcome to write a letter to the editor of the Cambridge Fellow Traveler as citizen Noam Chomsky. If the university wants to parade a Leftist linguistics professor in front of the national media to spew anti-American venom, fine, but it should be prepared to forfeit every last nickel of its federal funding.

Finally, there are some trangressions so beyond the pale that dismissal is the only remedy. Such is the case of Tom Nagy of George Washingon University. His was an act of outright treason and as such he is not fit to teach at an American university.

I had to laugh while listening to Ted Koppel drone on some weeks ago. America, he said, is losing the battle for hearts and minds in the Middle East. Perhaps, but more importantly we're conceding that battle here at home. Young adults come to America from all over the globe to seek knowledge and understanding. And what do our universities give them to take home? The idea that America is evil.

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