College Graduates

It is called "Free Speech". Just because you don't like what is said, you do not have the right to stop it.

This whole thing is about a guy, who was not a student, and was being allowed his "Free Speech," rights and was handing out flyers for a right wing group. He was punched by a student. The student was arrested. The student was wrong. And, it is now being used as a cause celibre to push right wing causes. Get me permission to speak at Liberty or Oral Roberts University about atheism without being challenged by students there. Then, we can talk. And, the President is not a dictator. Congress taxed us and passed the law to spend it at Universities. He does not have the right to change that law for political reasons. If he wants to change how things are done, he should convince a majority of people in Congress to agree and change the laws. That is how the Constitution says it should be done.

The difference is that Oral Roberts and Liberty are private non-profit colleges and do not receive public funding. Burkley is a public school funded by public funds. I also believe that if you were a person of some distinction, you might be able to speak at these schools. Jorden Peterson, who is a theist or at least an agnostic, was invited to speak at Oral Roberts. In general, conservatives tend to be more willing to discuss opposing views than liberals.

Actually, the executive branch does have authority over public educational institutions that receive federal funds. This control exists through the Dept. of Education. A good example of this is the changes made to Title IX implemented by the Obama regime.

Good. Now, show me a real life example of widespread denial of freedom of speech, beyond that which the Supreme Court has ruled that administrators must have to stave off anarchy in classrooms, in public schools that is so great that the President must intervene. If you can, I will lead the charge. Just because a majority of students think that the alt-right, nationalistic, neo-Nazi garbage that is coming from the most extreme quarters of my family's former favorite political party, does not mean that Freedom of Speech is at risk of being snuffed out. Most of America disagrees with the extremists pushing the President to once again exceed his Constitutional limits and dictate behavior.

You're kidding, right?

You don't know about the students trying to stop people like Dave Rubin, Ben Shapiro, Jorden Petterson, and Ann Coulter from speaking on college campuses. They even disrupted a speech by the Sec. of Education.

You didn't hear about the kid suspended for passing out copies of the constitution and Bill of Rights on campus., or the kid suspended for wearing a "Build the Wall" t-shirt'

You do not know that Congress has held hearings about the "Hecklers Veto" on campuses and the deplatforming and censoring of conservatives on social media.

The left is trying everything it can to stifle dissenting opinions wherever it can because it knows it can't win in open discourse.

The college students are expressing themselves, using their free speech rights. It goes both ways. The Secretary of Education is a lightening rod for political action. She courts it. The Supreme Court has ruled that elementary and high schools can control the behavior of their students. That means what they are doing is Constitutional. The problem with what you propose is that rights are not immutable. They have limits. Reasonable exercise of rights is almost never an issue. But, you guys want things one way. I met people like you on campus in the 1960s. They ended up blowing up draft boards and stuff like that. As for winning a war on discourse, all the polls I read put your group in the minority. Perhapes it is you who doesn't understand the facts.

Using violence to stop people from speaking is not exercising free speech and the use of violence is not protected by the Constitution. As far as blowing up draft boards, if I remember my history, that also was the left. The left always resorts to violence rather than discussion.

The same people who egged on the disruptive forces of the 1960s are egging on the disruptive forces today. And, I did not say that people should use violence. But, if I outshout you, that is my right. As Justice Frankfurter said, my freedom of speech ends at your nose. Up to that point, I can resist your message any way I like.

Protesting outside is fine.

However, on some campuses, they have blocked people from entering the hall, set off fire alarms during the speech, started riots and attacked people trying to attend the speech. They have used air horns and disrupted the speech while the person was speaking inside the hall.

These actions are illegal, but because the campus administrators either agreed with the protestors or were afraid to take action, they did nothing to stop them. In Burkley, they even told the police to stand down and let them riot.

That is why the president is pushing the issue.

If you don't like what someone is saying, don't listen. You do not have the right to stop others from hearing all sides.

Please see my response to Capt.6650.

Do you really believe that administrators did nothing to stop people from harming or destroying property they were responsible for? Do reall think campus police did nothing to stop violence that could have hurt their employees? Do you really think that these college employees did nothing to mitigate acts that could cost their school millions of dollars and put their jobs at risk, because they sided with the bogeymen? You must never had to work for a living. Professionals put their politics aside when they do their jobs. I worked at a VA Medical Center when Reagan was sequestering about 7% per year of our budget to keep his deficits from looking bad. That meant we had 7% less money than Congress gave us to provide health care for Veterans. When Veterans, Members of Congress and the press came to me to inquire, I never blamed Reagan. I said we had a budget amount we had to stay within and a priority system to use to ration care. When protestors wanted to set up a camp on our campus, I met with their leaders and let them know they would not be allowed to do so. They had set one up at a neighboring VA, without warning and it was not going to happen at mine. I sided with them. They were right. They were paying the price for Reagan's tax cuts. But, professionals keep their feelings to themselves. There may be, and probably are right leaning administrators. But, they are professionals and you will never know.

You still have "Local Control"... unless you want FEDERAL money. Then you have to respect people's rights. Aww shucks ma. I was just joshin' when I punched that guy in the face. He disagrees with me anyhow, which means he has no rights.