Editorial
Lee and Mahmoud’s Excellent Adventure
Editorial
September 24, 2007 - 12:00amMahmoud, you sly son of a gun. You probably slept well last night, your tan dictator jacket hanging neatly in your closet. And why shouldn’t you have? You’ve got everybody who matters exactly where you want ’em.
Today, you’re speaking at the United Nations and trying to play David to the American Goliath. Then you’re taking your look-at-me, attention-grabbing Holocaust-denying freak show to Columbia University, an arsenal of democracy in the most powerful nation on earth. You’ve got conservatives calling for your head, crazy liberals who support you and the whole world watching. Between anti-Semitism and nuclear bomb-making, you’ve put yourself at the top of the global agenda.
You can be sure Columbia President Lee Bollinger will play the patsy when he “questions” you. And while liberals make fools of themselves trying to defend your right to speak, conservatives will work themselves into a Cro-Magnon ’roid rage painting Columbia as a collection of terror-loving, elitist, treasonous sissies.
You’ve denied the Holocaust, called for the destruction of the State of Israel, pursued nuclear weapons and armed terrorists fighting American troops in Iraq. You preside over a country — Iran — where homosexuals are executed for who they are and professors are imprisoned for thinking out of turn. You had former KKK head David Duke over for breakfast (and your eggs weren’t even that good).
Yet, despite your literal and figurative, er, shortcomings, we want Columbia to hear you speak anyway. We want the rest of America, even those who can’t find Iran on a map, to scrutinize your beliefs and pick them apart. We believe in intellectual discourse no matter how much we can’t stand you. After all, freedom of speech is what makes our country so great; if we were to deny you a podium to espouse your views, our policies would be no better than your own. We may not agree with what you have to say, Mahmoud, but we’ll defend to the death your right to say it.
Lee and Mahmoud's Excellent Adventure
To the Editor:
If Hitler, Stalin and Idi Amin were alive, Columbia would undoubtedly invite them too, under the guise, of course, of "academic freedom" and "an exchange of ideas." Freedom of speech does not mean going out of our way to provide an additional forum for a homicidal tyrant. By doing so, Columbia has not only embarrassed itself- it has declared moral bankruptcy.
"An additional forum for an
"An additional forum for an homicidal tyrant." You don't watch Fox News, do you.
Don't worry, Lon. Columbia
Don't worry, Lon. Columbia is way ahead of your "inviting Hitler to speak" hypothetical:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxmEGsOkEVc
"If Hitler were in the United States, and wanted a platform from which to speak, he would have plenty of platforms to speak from in the United States. If he were willing to engage in a debate and a discussion, to be challenged by Columbia students and faculty, we would certainly invite him." - Columbia dean John Coatsworth
This is the current thought process of the Columbia administration: invite genocidal dictators to campus as long as they are willing to be "challenged" by students and faculty. When you agree to debate people like Hitler and Ahmadinejad, you give legitimacy to their views.
"After all, freedom of speech is what makes our country so great; if we were to deny you a podium to espouse your views, our policies would be no better than your own. We may not agree with what you have to say, Mahmoud, but we’ll defend to the death your right to say it."
This editorial shows the typical idiotic understanding of the First Amendment. The First Amendment has nothing to do with this! This is a private university giving a platform to a maniac. Ahmadinejad has no "right" to say anything at Columbia, but you have the right to espouse your views on a street corner and not be arrested by the government for the content of the speech. Ahmadinejad has plenty of platforms from which to espouse his hateful views without the left-wing idiots at Columbia bending over backwards to give him another one. I think we can all pick apart and scrutinize Ahmadinejad's views based on his countless other speeches and actions. If Cornell ever tried to pull a similar stunt in the name of "intellectual discourse," I would never donate to the university again.
genocide?
I must have missed something. What genocide did Ahmadinejad commit?
So Columbia's students storm
So Columbia's students storm the stage when the Minutemen founder is speaking, preventing him from speaking, and Columbia does not allow him to speak again to its students. Apparently, it is ok to suppress the conservative viewpoint (or that of Larry Summers, who administrators thought might offend some feminists). However, in the case of an individual who participated in the Iran hostage crisis, has denied the holocaust, called for the destruction of another UN member state, is killing our soldiers in Iraq, and is steadfastly building a nuclear arsenal, Columbia must give a voice to all perspectives. I support free speech in this country, but I've already heard enough of this monster. He has forfeited his right to legitimize himself with a high-profile speech to which the likes of Jim Gilchrist and Larry Summers are not entitled. Let's at least have some consistency with regard to hearing all voices, Columbia. There was another entity who suppressed all conservative viewpoints, only allowing extreme left opinions to breath the air of podiums: it was Stalin. Shame on you, Columbia. You have sold this country out.
get a grip
To begin with, Ahmadinejad is hardly a leftist voice and if his government's track record on gay, lesbian and women's rights is any indication, he should be a hero to all American conservatives. Secondly, if you read what he said at Columbia, he clarified many misconceptions perpetuated by the American press and nurtured by American hysteria of which this column is an insignificant but good example. One misconception was the view that he denied the Holocaust. Per the Associated Press: he said,"Granted this happened, what does it have to do with the Palestinian people?" He then said he was defending the rights of European scholars, an apparent reference to a small number who have been prosecuted under national laws for denying or minimizing the Holocaust. "There's nothing known as absolute," he said. This seems to me a far more appropriate point to make in the setting of an institution of higher learning like Columbia then the nasty and un-collegial comments made by Columbia's president. Lee Bollinger's comments, calling him a "cruel and petty dictator," were delivered less in the spirit of scholarly inquiry than they were pandering to popular sentiment. Also, please spare us the Hitler comparisons. They're puerile, lacking in accuracy, and really only serve to diminish the horrors of mid-20th century fascism. While you're at it, spare us the Stalin comparisons also. They're particularly inappropriate in reference to Ahmadinejad.
""There's nothing known as
""There's nothing known as absolute," he said. This seems to me a far more appropriate point to make in the setting of an institution of higher learning like Columbia ..."
Give me a fucking break. Thanks to the ruthless efficiency of the Nazis, who carefully documented the atrocities they committed, there should be no doubt or argument that the Holocaust occurred. The fact that people have to constantly answer to crazies like Ahmadinejad and the European scholars he was "defending" (aka agreeing with) is an insult to the memory of those who died.
"To begin with, Ahmadinejad is hardly a leftist voice and if his government's track record on gay, lesbian and women's rights is any indication, he should be a hero to all American conservatives."
Yes, because American conservatives want to kill all the gay people in this country. That's what I call a "puerile" comment.
Bollinger's comments may have been pandering to alumni who are no doubt considering whether they should ever give money to the school again, but it doesn't mean that they're not true.
While Ahmadinejad has not risen to the level of Hitler yet, if idiots like you continue to brush him off and welcome him with open arms, he just might get the chance to be.