TO THE EDITOR:
I found Jen Myers’ letter, published Oct. 26, to be very troubling. Her desire to stifle pro-Confederate protesters’ exercise of their free speech rights and her conflation of such exercise with threatening students’ safety are fundamentally incompatible with both the liberal academic tradition and the American tradition of freedom of expression.
Universities are meant to be places that support the free and open discussion of ideas, where the best ideas can win out. The reason that this principle is important is to support people who may have ideas that today seem outlandish but that later turn out to be correct, in the model of Copernicus.
Although many of those ideas may ultimately turn out to be incorrect, the principle must be protected to support the advancement of humanity.
Additionally, freedom of speech is a core American value, not, as Ms. Myers characterized it, a “cop-out.”
This value protects not just popular speech, but unpopular, hateful, and controversial speech. Indeed, it is most necessary in the case of unpopular speech.
Physical safety was not at issue on Sunday. Despite numerous heated arguments, nobody ever came to blows, and there were numerous campus police officers there to keep the peace if they needed to.
The pro-Confederate protesters who came to campus were hateful, misguided and foolish. In an open competition of ideas, their ideas are nothing to fear.
Ira Kaplan
