commentary by Michael L. Bromley
copyright 2005

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... of Politics

Feb 2/05: Hamilton College of Clinton, NY, my school, class of '86, has once again proved the lunacy of the modern fetish.

The whacked-out fringe of Womins Studies, aka Gender This That & Whatever, that the College would rather ignore but is afraid to spank and rightly hang from its toes, blew up the College press office yet again with an insane invitation for some lunatic to speak or teach at the College. The last episode was over a month's salary and a full-blown College platform to beat ugly thoughts into little minds for a Weather Underground terrorist whom Clinton pardoned for the murder of a policeman. To shut down BillyBob's friend, cops staged a magnificent  protest outside a Hamilton NYC fundraiser. Ya hear that? Cops protesting! You can't ignore that one, even if you'd rather be out hiring old cop killers.

 Now we got a psychopath University of Colorado tenured fool who has busted our front doors with unfortunate and sick theories of how the September 11 victims deserved their fates. From the Denver Post:

9/11 views stir dissent in N.Y.
Clinton, N.Y. - A University of Colorado professor who suggested the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were justified and those who died in the World Trade Center were not innocent victims has ignited protests on an upstate New York college campus where he's been invited to speak.

Go read it. It's sick, and I'm under no obligation to repeat it here -- just as Hamilton College was under no obligation to broadcast it from the Hill. The College President wrapped the offense in the First Amendment:

College Issues Statement Concerning Churchill Visit
... Hamilton, like any institution committed to the free exchange of ideas, invites to its campus people of diverse opinions, often controversial. The opportunity to encounter and respond to people from outside the college community in their intensity and their immediacy is among the key attributes of a liberal education. The views of speakers are their own. We expect, as a matter of civil discourse, that the members of this academic community, as well as visitors, respect the dignity of reasoned and principled debate. It is in this setting that the substance and credibility of a speaker's views are established as being worthy of support, or not.

We expect that many of those who strongly disagree with Mr. Churchill's comments will attend his talk and make their views known. This is the process of both academic freedom and freedom of speech.

Noble? Principled? Daring? Ha!

Until it comes to consequence.

I'm so sad and thoroughly unsurprised to learn from Hamilton that Principle has a price. Gee, they didn't teach me that when I was there. But here it is: Even ideas are subject to the market.  When you're looking to raise money it's better to avoid pesky cops picketing the taxi lane, or Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh joyously chewing your bile. Puts an ugly, uninvited downward pressure on your market cap. So, of course Hamilton caved, but not for an absence of principle, or of anything the College had done wrong. But of course. Says the College president:

Cancellation of Panel Discussion on Limits of Dissent
We have done our best to protect what we hold most dear, the right to speak, think and study freely. But there is a higher responsibility that this institution carries, and that is the safety and security of our students, faculty, staff and the community in which we live.

Credible threats of violence have been directed at the College and members of the panel. These threats have been turned over to the police. Based on the information available, I have made the decision to cancel this event in the interest of protecting those at risk.

Nobody missed the hypocrisy in this. Nobody questions the motives, neither those of the College, nor of the Kirkland Project, which was looking to outrage, not present an idea. What ought to offend is not the hypocrisy but the limp, mildly damp feebleness of it all.

At the same time that Hamilton's lame president scoured bank accounts and the fine print of the Kirkland Project's Thought Police Handbook, real people with real lives risked those lives to exercise real principle.  While Hamilton doubled over in its political twister,  across Iraq, the Purple Brigade stood up straight and saluted principle and  bravery. Mothers and fathers went to the polls separately so that if one were killed the children would yet have a parent.

And Hamilton says a celebrant of murder ought be heard.

Iraqi security forces patted down citizens, wondering, hoping, praying that this one was not wired to plastique. Those same policemen and soldiers lined up for the polls themselves, and voted with a vigor and a defiance not seen since the Civil Rights movement and the Civil War itself.

And Hamilton says it's too scared.

This isn't just hypocrisy. This isn't just groveling, or two-faced surrender. This is all that and beyond. It's a moral fraud.

Besides, with a little more focus on the 2nd amendment, Hamilton could have all of the 1st amendment it wants...
 

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