Jacob Miller’s solution, “children must be taught how to think, not what to think” doesn’t go far enough to solving the free speech problems on college campuses (“The Case Against Conformity Of Thought On Campus,” The View From Campus, Feb. 16).
Another solution might be to treat all speakers equally. Look what happens when conservative podcaster Ben Shapiro, the No. 1 target of anti-Semitism, goes to speak on college campuses. Many universities will charge the organizations that host him an exorbitant amount for “security,” something that is not charged to left-wing speakers, and, sadly, some organizations cannot pay the fee, which shuts down free speech. Perhaps making the universities charge equal [amounts] to all is a better solution.
When protestors stormed the stage at Milo Yiannopoulos’ event at the University of Chicago, the security did nothing to remove them, even when the audience yelled at them to do their job. So making sure campus security is allowed to do its job and remove people who disrupt speakers is another idea. Also, especially at publically funded universities that receive taxpayer dollars, make sure that the outside public can hear the speech rather than be banned because of left-wing hecklers. This happened at the University of Connecticut, a taxpayer funded institution, which banned the outside public … from hearing Ben Shapiro speak. Yet the public was allowed in when Anita Hill spoke. And finally, we need to teach that a fundamental part of free speech is that things will be said that people don’t like and won’t agree with. What are the appropriate and inappropriate responses to that speech so that all ideas are heard and that lies are not tolerated?
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