Written by Michael Palomba
Free speech is under attack throughout the United States, and San Diego is no exception. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) flagged three major universities in San Diego with “yellow light” ratings. A “yellow light” rating means “at least one ambiguous policy that too easily encourages administrative abuse and arbitrary application” is in place.
The three universities that have been flagged are San Diego State University, University of California San Diego, and California State University San Marcos.
As a San Diego State Student, this is a topic that affects me personally.
In 2017, my first year at SDSU, a Milo Yiannopoulos event that had been scheduled for October was cancelled. SDSU claimed it would be unable to provide adequate security with its “current resources.” The event was being sponsored by the College Republicans group who described the unexpected cancellation as “highly suspicious.”
Brandon Jones, the president of the College Republicans at the time, released a statement following the abrupt cancellation:
“This morning I had my fourth meeting in as many weeks with San Diego State University leadership in regards to planning an event to bring conservative speaker Milo Yiannopoulos to Montezuma Hall on October 29th at 9pm. This morning’s agenda was supposed to consist of a quote outlining security costs from Chief Mays,” he continued. “Instead, we were blindsided by university leadership with the cancelation of our event.”
SDSU chief of police Josh Mays told the group that public safety officers “would need over six hours and 20 bomb-sniffing dogs to secure the 200,000 square foot venue,” a task deemed “not doable with their current resources.” According to someone familiar with the situation, there are not even that many bomb-sniffing dogs in all of San Diego County.
Coincidentally, it was discovered that an email from a group opposing the event was received by student leaders shortly before the Yiannopoulos event was canceled.
An email was intercepted by the College Republicans from a student leader revealing that “Dr. Randy Timm of Student Life and Leadership and Edwin Darrell of the Center for Intercultural Relations have both expressed that they are willing to support however they can to make this event a reality.”
Jones said, “The College Republicans had already had multiple meetings about security with the campus police, including with a police lieutenant as recently as September 29, so the sudden decision to claim ‘lack of resources’ for an event that has been planned since May is highly suspicious and suggests this is another example of bureaucratic censorship and stonewalling by a left-wing campus administration.”
Attempts to limit free speech are becoming more and more frequent throughout the U.S. and around the world.
Recently, Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel, made a statement that echoes what we see happening in the United States. A rise of the idea that speech, in and of itself, can be harmful.
Angela Merkel wants to curtail freedom of speech in accordance with what she decides is "hateful". A reminder that anti-Semitic hate speech was already illegal pre-WW2. Banning speech is at best ineffective and at worse counter-productive pic.twitter.com/2ay4L9oGc3
— Stephen Knight 🎙️ (@GSpellchecker) November 30, 2019
She states, “But freedom of expression has its limits. Those limits begin where hate is spread. They begin where the dignity of other people is violated. This house will and must oppose extreme speech.”
However, what she says directly contradicts the concept of free speech. Who decides at what point “hate is spread?” Who decides “where the dignity of other people is violated?” What is considered “extreme speech?” And how can you have free speech, while limiting what people can and can not say?
We have reached a point in a society where one’s feelings are becoming more important than the constitutional rights of others.
Speech alone is not harmful. You can not commit an act of violence solely by speaking.
There is one major reason that the right to free speech works. Everyone has it. The correct way to combat speech you don’t like is not to attempt to censor it, but to use your own right to free speech to counter it.
Allowing some ideas to be spoken and forcefully suppressing others is dangerous. Our Founders created the First Amendment to protect us from just that. And they would be appalled to see that feelings and emotions are beginning to take precedence over open discourse, freedom of expression, and our constitutional rights.
