Jewish World Review Nov. 27, 2002/ 22 Kislev, 5763

Marianne M. Jennings

Marianne M. Jennings
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Free speech, Harvard, and First Amendment looneys


http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | A fairly regular curmudgeon correspondent, whose disdain for me knows no bounds, sent an e-mail brimming with his usual malignings and a bonus in the form of a query about our child with disabilities, "How is the little defect?"

The dog bit and the bee stung in one sentence. Crude, insensitive and utterly devoid of purpose describe his words and etiquette. The liberalentsia should call his gaggle of verbiage "hate speech." Censor not this clod. The First Amendment shields all speech, from the vile to the ridiculous, and protects dolts for the sake of democracy.

Tom Daschle beats the drums for curbing domination of talk radio by conservatives. Daschle tells blood-curdling tales: Rush Limbaugh fans are after him because El Rushbo referred to Daschle, as, brace yourselves, "obstructionist." Conservative, talk-show-listeners are not lying in wait, meeting in woods and plotting to rid the world of ineffectual senators. Daschle has about as much likelihood of a Limbaugh fan pummeling as Jennifer Lopez has for a lasting marriage. Daschle's Utopian media balance exists already and tilts his way: ABC, NBC, CBS, and CNN.

Emily's List, the Democratic PAC that supports only pro-choice female candidates, demands rules on title injustices committed during 2002 gubernatorial races. In Michigan, Lt. Gov. Dick Posthumus referred to his opponent, AG Jennifer Granholm, as "Jennifer." In Maryland Robert Ehrlich Jr. called his opponent, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, "Ma'am." Oh, the indignity of being a non-Ms.!

Those who seek to erode the First Amendment with regulation, however, desire exceptions for their utterances. The hate speech label vacillates with political leanings. Singer Harry Belafonte pontificated, "Colin Powell's permitted to come into the house of the master. When Colin Powell dares to suggest something other than what the master wants to hear, he will be turned back out to pasture." Day-o! Me want go home! Harry should stick to tallying bananas. There's no daylight here. This racially charged hate sentiment found no outrage from the left.

The California Supreme Court ruled that Nike could be prosecuted under that state's false advertising laws for CEO Phil Knight's letter to the New York Times that challenged a Bob Herbert op-ed piece on Nike's labor practices in Third World countries. Bob Herbert and the New York Times enjoy immunity from refutation for this shallow analysis, "Nike executives . . . are not bothered by the cries of the oppressed. Each cry is a signal that their investment is paying off." Under the guise of advertising regulation, California has censored speech. Corporate speech and Phil Knight enjoy First Amendment protection. Nike has the right to debate its labor practices and policies.

The halls of the academy are home to utter inconsistency on utterances. Harvard's English department invited poet Tom Paulin to campus. Poet Paulin waxes eloquent West Bank Jewish settlers, "They should be shot dead. I think they are Nazis, racists, I feel nothing but hatred for them." Wordsworth, where art thou?

Faculties are heavy-handed, inconsistent, and First Amendment-free when they are the targets. Harvard Business School now considers censure for students who published a cartoon in the student newspaper in which career services folks were labeled "incompetent morons." Across the campus at Harvard Law School, future lawyers labor to develop a hate speech code because a student's course outline used a racial slur.

Sometimes speech is nutty. Insensitivity abounds. Free speech can net a wince or two. The First Amendment was not created with the amiable, discerning, or rational in mind. Free speech protects the obnoxious, the offensive and those who do not bow to PC. Censoring speech, no matter how inane or offensive its content, is dangerous. One man's rambling folly is another man's cause. The marketplace of ideas demands a microphone for all because free markets work. No one need fear the flow of thoughts and ideas. Truth percolates; chaff dissipates with laughter's discernment.

Sticks and stones break bones, words don't. My tacky correspondent and the nonsense of others noted here reflect desperation rhetoric, a transparent substitute for analysis and refutation. We endure such oafishness and speak to counter.

Harvard's President Lawrence Summers has done a masterful job of avoiding speech codes while still enforcing common decency. His words shamed his faculty into uninviting poet Paulin, "Where anti-Semitism and views that are profoundly anti-Israel have traditionally been the primary preserve of poorly educated right-wing populists, profoundly anti-Israel views are increasingly finding support in progressive intellectual communities."

Words irritate, motivate, excite, and condemn. But words also calm, heal, respond, reason, and defend. Free speech cannot survive without this full range of action verbs. Nor can freedom.

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JWR contributor Marianne M. Jennings is a professor of legal and ethical studies at Arizona State University. Send your comments by clicking here.

Up

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01/25/00: Stroke of the pen, law of the land: Clinton's Camelot
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© 2002, Marianne M. Jennings