5
Freedom eroding
When is suppression of free speech acceptable? The answer given by the administration of the University of Kansas, apparently, is: whenever a group feels wronged or threatened. For those who would defend our constitutional rights, however, another answer is quite clear: never.
By baving in to demands to restrict free speech on this campus (in a free society everyone has these rights, even Klassenm, faculty members, and student radio broadcasters), the administration has struck a crippling blow to free and open inquiry. A university should be the strongest protector of free speech, not the first place that open examination of ideas is silenced. Free and open inquiry should be the foundation of our University. If we wish people to make informed decisions, an open airing of views must not only be allowed but encouraged, no matter how abhorrent the ideas may be. It is our responsibility as members of a free society and an institution of free inquiry to uphold this principle.
When our University leaders were faced with demands to cancel the appearance of Ku Klux Klan members on campus, the chancellor and executive vice chancellor should have defended the legal and moral principle of free speech. At the beginning of this incident, it appeared that Chancellor Budig was prepared to do that as illustrated by his statement, "Suppression of views, however bizarre and repugnant, has no place on a university campus." This quickly became muddled by the administration, however, in a discussion of treatment of blacks on the KU campus. Indeed, Judith Ramaley, executive vice chancellor, is now heading an ad hoc task force on that issue. As important to the discussion and elimination of discrimination against minorities at KU is, it is a separate issue and should have been treated quite independently of the original issue: free speech and academic freedom of inquiry. To allow the debate to devolve in this way and never to have addressed the basic principle shows a lack of moral and intellectual leadership by this University's administration.
formation of another ad hoc committee of faculty, staff and students that would examine the position of basic constitutional rights on this campus. Does our University protect individuals with divergent views and encourage open discussion of ideas? Or are we building an environment where people are afraid to speak out, where faculty members and students feel unsupported by an administration that allows vocal groups to silence anyone they disagree with? This very serious erosion of our constitutional freedom of speech at the University of Kansas needs to be addressed.
As members of the University community, we are calling for the
Stacy Houston
Lawrence freshman
Douglas Houston
Associate professor of business
Pamela Houston
Assistant to dean of liberal arts
Stacy Houston
Confront issues
It's comfortable in Lawrence. We are subjected to such pressing, traumatic issues as downtown development, a southern bypass, and where to place this year's allotment of traffic signals. It is not my intent to belittle these issues or to deny their importance. I am merely trying to point out that as citizens of Lawrence and as students at the University of Kansas we are not often forced to meet many of the ugly, violent social problems that still exist and are indeed omnipresent in some parts of the country. These problems include teenage pregnancy, drug abuse, AIDS, abuse of the young and the elderly, sexual discrimination, and racial discrimination. They are not issues that we see in front of us on the streets every day, and to many, out of sight is out of mind. Some people reach such a state of complacency that they begin to believe that these problems no longer exist. They couldn't be further from the truth.
These problems do exist, and they exist right here in Lawrence. Some of them are less obvious than others and some are easy to ignore, but there is no question that they are here with us. The recently canceled appearance of the Ku Klux Klan is precisely the type of shocking demonstration of a social problem that is needed to remind people that problems still exist. Social problems can only be solved by society. If society ignores the problems or forgets them or foists them off on others, then these problems will never be solved. In this sense, the planned KKK
appearance on campus and their debate on KJIHK radio would have been an educational experience. Perhaps by seeing how ludicrous the beliefs and actions of the Klan are, we would have been reminded of a problem that we have yet to solve. Instead, an ugly issue has been avoided, and by spring break most of the town probably will have forgotten it also.
Good decision
Steve Bradt Lawrence senior
I want to praise the decision that came down concerning the Ku Klux Klan controversy. That decision threaded its way through a needle with an exceedingly small eye.
I realized how small the eye was as I sat arguing with my officemate last week. She said the Klan had forfeited the right to free speech by dint of murder and mayhem. I said the Klan must have the right to speak, because this is the United States. Hers was a truth uttered from an angry and hurt heart; my truth, no less real, came from a professional commitment to journalism, to the notion that anyone, even a cyclops or a kleagle, must be accorded the right to speak.
There were several varieties of truth at work in this affair, and that's what made it so difficult. It was a situation capable of wringing blood from the heart no matter which side one took.
And that's, finally, why the decision should be commended. The decision allows, after all, the Klan to speak, or at least the disembodied voices of the Klan to be heard in the context of other extremist, disembodied voices. The decision also appeased a community of people angered by the thought of the Klan's actual presence on campus. The sanctity of the First Amendment has been acknowledged. The sanctity of the justly outraged heart has been acknowledged. The solution was, given these ghastly circumstances, the only reasonable one.
University Daily Kansan / Thursday, February 25, 1988
Roger Martin Editor, Explore magazine
Look to the past
What might we learn from the great leaders and thinkers of the past that applies to the closure of open discourse at the University of Kansas? Here is a sample, as quoted
from Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, Thirteenth and Centennial Edition, 1955.
Although the often-quoted statement, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" is said to be a paraphrase of words by Voltaire and it shows his concern for Tolerance. "Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so too" (p. 326).
In his famed "four freedoms" address to Congress, President Franklin D. Roosevelt put the matter of freedom of speech and expression before freedom of worship, freedom from want and freedom from fear when he said, "We look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression — everywhere in the world." January 6, 1941 (p. 920).
Finally, no one has underscored the threat of forced silence more eloquently than George Washington. In an address to his officers, he said, "If men are to be precluded from offering their sentiments on a matter which may involve the most serious and alarming consequences that can invite the consideration of mankind, reason is of no use to us; the freedom of speech may be taken away, and dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter." March 15, 1783 (pp. 366-67).
Roy D. Laird Professor of political science
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