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Essay 11 |
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| Striking a (peaceful) blow for the Progressive Left | ||
RW Spisak, Miami, FL The Tamiami campus of FIU, hosted a presentation by the conservative activist and the founder of the Young American Foundation, Floyd Brown. His speech was entitled “Why the left hates free speech”. I was asked to attend, because, a concern had been raised “ that there would be no one to respond to these scurrilous accusations.” He started his speech by mocking the speeches of Fidel Castro, and suggesting that he wouldn’t need eight hours to make his point. He then listed a series of incidents in which college administrators harassed conservative college students. Students who, because their ideas were conservative, were stymied in their attempts to bring the gospel of conservatism to the decadent leftist dominated college campuses. Story one, a student tries to post a message about a conservative speaker and is accused of disrupting a bible study meeting – brought up on charges, he fights and eventually overcomes the bureaucrats. He blames this on the ( guess what) lefties in the Bible Study group? He contrasts this with an “University approved” presentation on “Stereotypes in Gay Cinema” which he said, was protected and allowed because it was approved by the leftists in the college administration. Then he told a story about an “affirmative action bake sale” which you have to admit, is some interesting street theatre. He blamed the leftist thought police at SMU for shutting down that offense to ideological purity. Another example of the mad terrorists from the LEFT? A Marxist plot? Or just bureaucrats run amok! He said that the same college has been reluctant to schedule a meeting to “accept” the credentials of the campus conservative club, because they had trouble getting a quorum, and thus no approval. Again he spots a commie plot. Leftists, in charge of academia? Obviously! Anyone who has tried to work with a college, to get them to decide, or approve anything vaguely controversial is shaking their head at this point. PROOF he exclaims of the evil power of leftists to stifle free speech. Finally he rounds out his anecdotal journey with his personal odyssey the story of how, as a youth he traveled to Washington D.C., was arrested for picketing the Soviet Embassy, he was jailed, fought his conviction all the way to the Supreme Court and won. (He didn’t blame the leftists there though.) So he summed up by urging the students to stand up for their freedom of speech, suggesting that the freedom of speech was the foundation of all other freedoms. He reminded students that they in academe were on the front lines of freedom, and he quoted former President Ronald Wilson Reagan, as saying the end of liberty was always only one generation away. (Not my favorite Reagan quote, mine varies between “ketchup is a vegetable” and “trees cause more pollution than factories.”) He asked for questions, one young man asked why he kept comparing the leftists to Castro – no one supports Castro. Well, all the leftists in California support him. “He’s not a leftist!” said another student. Brown rolled his eyes, “He must be a leftist, he supports Marx!” Another student asked “What about colleges that suppress the free speech of liberals?” Brown was dismissive, “ I never heard of any, NEXT! ” I decided it was time for me to make my move, I approached the podium. First, I thanked him for coming to Miami to speak to us. Then I explained that while I’d been involved in the progressive activist community in Miami for over thirty years, I’d never heard any progressive or liberal or leftist praise Castro. Tyrants of the left and tyrants of the right, are still tyrants. My family and many other families here in Miami fled to these shores in fear of tyrants. It matters little, whether you are slain or imprisoned by a Castro or a Pinochet, you are still as dead. While I’ve done projects with each campus in Miami, I have never seen any support or solicitude granted by any college for progressive groups or organizations, not ever, not once. But I have seen bureaucratic timidity, and academia has no exclusive claim there. So I suggest, you’ve made a case for bureaucratic ineptitude, and administrative incompetence, but that is not proof of POLITICAL BIAS! – You have offered us nothing more than bungling bureaucrats, where is the evidence, that there was any political element to these examples, of bureaucratic malfeasance? He paused. “Well, that’s another discussion.” (He tried, to be convincing)… but the tide had turned. I asked him if he supported the Anti-USA Patriot Act position of the ACU ? (American Conservative Union) “Yes”, he said, “I do.” I said turning to the audience, “I think he chose all his anecdotes from recent conservative history for a reason, because if we look back, say just the past hundred years, we can learn something interesting about the conservative movement.” I asked for those of you who know some history, “which side were the conservatives on when it came to Women’s’ Suffrage? “ “If it was up to the conservatives, you women still wouldn’t have the vote”. And Blacks and Hispanics…. “ “Wait, a minute” he said… “I’m here to answer a few more questions, you should rent the room yourself.” But I didn’t need to rent the room, because, I’d just stolen the audience, who needs a room. What’s the Big Idea… |
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