Defending Speech With Which I Don't Agree
Yeah, I think the title is worded awkwardly, but I am trying to curb my enthusiasm for ending sentences with prepositions (I will continue to boldly split infinitives that no man has split before).
Anyway, in the spirit of this post and this one, I try from time to time to reinforce my support for free speech as an absolute right by publicly supporting the speech rights of those with whom I disagree. Today's case is the public University of Nebraska-Lincoln deciding to un-invite former terrorist William Ayers to speak on campus. The reason given was the current weak-ass excuse often used to reverse the invitation of controversial speakers, "we can't gaurantee security."
Though I would never have hired the guy, Ayers is a professor at a real public university, and what he has to say is particularly relevant given his ties to Barack Obama. I find the behavior of Nebraska's conservative politicians to be especially absurd here -- after months of calling for more discussion and disclusore of Ayers and his ties to Obama, they want to prevent Ayers from speaking publicly?
Update: In an odd coincidence, at about the same time I was writing this post, the NY Times blog was posting on split infinitives.
