Daily Archives: October 3, 2021

Julia Wille, Student Government ReporterOctober 1, 2021

On Wednesday,Sept.29,theUniversity of Wisconsin-La Crosse Student Association (SA) invited guest speakers from the Counseling and Testing Centerand heard from students about free speech claims.

In the general student body open forum, student Aaron Hinz came to talk to the SA. He came to speak in response to the event on campus last week in which the College Republicans chalked the sidewalks of campus in protest of the mask mandate at UWL.

Hinz stated that he is of Ashkenazi Jewish descent and said, I passionately advocated for the rights of religious and ethnic minorities however I was devastated to hear the next morning that my Jewish voice was silenced by students and university staff. I feel the trauma and pain of my ancestors as my voice was silenced just as their voices were silenced.

He informed the senate that he has filed an incident report with the Anti Defamation League (ADL) that will include UWLs name, the names of campus police that were involved, the names of the resident assistants who were heard bragging about erasing chalk, and the members of the SA. Hinz said, I am sorry it had to come to this, but the community feels it has no other option as this university blatantly allows intellectual genocide and suppresses its most vulnerable population.

Next,the SA was joined by guest speakers from the UWL counseling and testing center,directorGretchen Reinders andassistant directorCrysChampion. They went over the new website set up for the testing center to try and make it more accessible for students. They also now have many options for online counseling. Reinders said, If you are or know a student that is struggling, dont hesitate and send them to our office right away and we will get someone who can talk to them.

In the officer reports SA President Jared Zwettler announced that Higher education emergency relief funding (HEERF) is going to be made available for students in the near future. He said that all Pell Grant-eligible students will receive $2,000 from federal funding and students that are not eligible for the Pell Grant will be able to apply for $1500 each. This will be available beginning Monday and an email will be sent out with information on how to apply. Zwettler said, They are estimating that about 4,200 students will get funding from this which is really really exciting.

SA also discussed the wellness weekend that is coming up. It will be Oct. 16, through the 18, and there will be therapy dogs and music performances on the union lawn on Saturday. There will also be a wellness fair from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. at the Recreational Eagle Center (REC) on Monday Oct, 18.

The SA also passed a resolution that formallyRecognizesIndigenous Peoples Day in La Crosse. As of 2019,the city of La Crosse made the second Monday in October Indigenous Peoples Day.This was formally recognized as Columbus Day. This resolution will now honor it as indigenous peoples day instead.

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Student Association hears claims about the inability to exercise free speech on campus - The Racquet

'Persecution for the expression of opinions'

It was disheartening to read that the chairman of the Bourne School Committee, the governing board of an institution that should value free speech, has, at the least, encouraged Kari MacRae, a member of the committee, to resign over something MacRae said, on the basis that her words were in direct violation of school policy.

It is at times like these that we should remember the wisdom of Justice Oliver Wendell HolmesJr. who in his dissent inAbrams v. United States, 250 U.S. 616 (1919), had this to say:

"Persecution for the expression of opinions seems to me perfectly logical. If you have no doubt of your premises or your power, and want a certain result with all your heart, you naturally express your wishes in law, and sweep away all opposition. …

But when men have realized that time has upset many fighting faiths, they may come to believe even more than they believe the very foundations of their own conduct that the ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade in ideas that the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market. …

Every year, if not every day, we have to wager our salvation upon some prophecy based upon imperfect knowledge. … I think that we should be eternally vigilant against attempts to check the expression of opinions that we loathe and believe to be fraught with death, unless they so imminently threaten immediate interference with the lawful and pressing purposes of the law that an immediate check is required to save the country."

Dana A. Berry, West Barnstable

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR - Cape Cod Times

Pfizer announced COVID-19 vaccine is safe for kids: Here's how long it could take for approval

A smaller dose of Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine is safe to use on children ages 5-11 years old. Heres why it could take weeks for approval.

Just the FAQs, USA TODAY

OXFORD, Wis. A federal judge has ruled in favor of a high school girl who said she was threatened with jail if she didn't take down her social media posts about her brush with COVID-19 last year.

Amyiah Cohoon, then a sophomore, took a spring break trip to Florida with the Westfield Area High School band in 2020.The students returned to Wisconsin on March 15, earlier than planned, because of the coronavirus outbreak.

Cohoonposted on Instagram that she thought she had been infected, had been to hospitals, and though she tested negative, her doctors thought she probably had had it earlier. In a final post, she is wearing an oxygen mask and says she's beaten COVID-19, and urges others to stay safe.

On March 27, Marquette County Sheriff's Sgt. Cameron Klumpcame to the Cohoon home and said Sheriff Joseph Konrath had ordered the posts be taken down, as he didn't believe there were any confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the county.

Earlier that day, the school district administrator had notified parents there was "no truth" to rumors a student had contracted COVID-19 during the band trip. He called Cohoon's posts,"a foolish means to get attention and the source of the rumor has been addressed.

Cohoon took down the posts butsued Konrath and his deputya month later.

On Friday, U.S. District Judge Brett Ludwig granted her summary judgment in the case.

The First Amendment is not a game setting for the government to toggle off and on. It applies in times of tranquility and times of strife," Ludwig wrote in a 16-page decision."While Defendants in this case may have believed their actions served the greater good, that belief cannot insulate them. Demanding a 16-year-old remove protected speech from her Instagram account is a First Amendment violation.

Cohoon and her parents were represented by the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty. WILL deputy counselLuke Bergsaid the decision shows free speech rights don't disappear in an emergency.

I grew up 'under a rock': My parents banned social media until I was 17. I'm glad they did.

'I don't have COVID': Doctor says some COVID-19patients deny virus, decry vaccines from their deathbed

More importantly, law enforcement has no business trying to regulate the social media posts of local teenagers, Berg said.

In addition to a declaration that Konrath and Klumphad violated their First Amendment rights, Cohoon and her parents had sought an injunction against anychargesor threats of jail over any future social media posts about her COVID-19 scare.

Ludwig denied the injunction request, saying it was too broad and unnecessary in light of his order that Konrath and his deputy had violated Cohoon's free speech rights.

The defendants tried to get the suit thrown out, saying Klump had probable cause to charge Cohoon with disorderly conduct because he had reason to believe her posts were causing"significant disturbance, anxiety, fear, concern, and even panic among other citizens."

Ludwig said that argument dramatically understated the analysis for probable cause, and if accepted, would gut free speech protection, "allowing police officers a free hand to wrongfully arrest anyone engaging in protected speech so long as the offending officer could point to a possible disturbance or perceived anxiety among those who opposed the speech."

And as to the defendants' claim of qualified immunity, Ludwig noted it simply does not apply to requests for declaratory relief.

Follow Bruce Vielmetti on Twitter at @ProofHearsay.

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A girl was threatened with jail over COVID-19 social media posts. A judge ruled in her favor - USA TODAY

Sept. 30, 2021 4:27 pm ET

In Great Art Doesnt Care About Fairness, Equality or Identity (op-ed, Sept. 25), James Campbell writes, It is surely one of the strangest of recent cultural phenomena that, whereas it was traditionally young radicals who fought to throw off the shackles of censorship, it is their radical heirs who lead the campaign to fasten them on again.

There is nothing strange about it. Those young radicals of the 1960s to whom Mr. Campbell refers were not fighting for free speech. They were exploiting Americas commitment to free speech to spread their own radical leftist beliefs. Now that they have completed their long march through the institutions, giving them near-monopoly control of the propagation of ideas in the U.S., they find that freedom of speech has become something of an inconvenience. That pesky thing called truth keeps rearing its head. Better to stifle the opposition altogether. Welcome to the revolution.

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Censorship and the Possibility of Great Art - The Wall Street Journal

Donald Trump reportedly told Russian President Vladimir Putin that he had to pretend to be more tough on him in public, according to the new book "I'll Take Your Questions Now" by Stephanie Grisham.

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The David Pakman Show is a news and political talk program, known for its controversial interviews with political and religious extremists, liberal and conservative politicians, and other guests.

Missed an episode? Check out David Pakman on our Youtube Channel anytime or visit the show page for the latest clips.

#FreeSpeechTV is one of the last standing national, independent news networks committed to advancing progressive social change.

#FSTV is available on Dish, DirectTV, AppleTV, Roku, Sling and online at freespeech.org

David Pakman Donald Trump Russia Stephanie Grisham The David Pakman Show Vladimir Putin

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Trump Told Putin He Had to Pretend to Be "Tougher" on Him - Free Speech TV

Hundreds of Skidmore sophomores attended President Conners speech on September 6, in which he discussed the importance of differing opinions. I, too, believe there is value to be found in other peoples opinions, and that disagreement, or the discussions resulting from it, can benefit us. It is in that light that I would like to present a divergent perspective on two of the topics from his speech.

Allow me to preface this piece by saying that I hold full respect for our College President. While I disagree with some of the ideas expressed in his speech, this does not reduce his intrinsic value as a person or the value of his opinions. Instead, I am merely engaging in the very discourse and discussion of opposing opinions which he advocates for by presenting my perspective on this matter. In particular, I find two main points of difference between us: the paradox of tolerance, and whether the far left is equal to the far right.

First, let us discuss the paradox of tolerance. During his speech, President Conner suggested that all opinions must be heard. On the surface, our views have much in common, in that I also would like to hear many different views. This raises a question of whether all views should be tolerated. At first glance, it may seem best to have everyone speak. However, further inspection of free speech absolutism reveals potential issues in this plan. For many topics, this may be fine. But what of those who advocate violence against others, whether for beliefs or immutable characteristics? What of a student group which wishes to bring a racist, or homophobic, or antisemitic speaker to campus? These may seem like edge cases, but a skim of the past few years worth of newspaper headlines yields plenty of such incidents and resulting aftermaths on campuses. Clearly this is a topic in need of examination.

The philosopher Karl Popper outlined this issue in 1945, in his tract The Open Society and Its Enemies. In that text, he describes the Paradox of Tolerance as such: Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them. In other words, if we allow intolerant ideas to propagate through society, intolerance will build and override the tolerant society. Indeed, this has played out through history in regimes such as Nazi Germany or Fascist Italy, where intolerant anti-liberal ideologues took power and removed the right to free speech, quashing discourse.

While I do not think this extreme level is likely to happen on our college campus, it is worth considering the potential consequences of allowing such views on campus. On smaller scales, oppressive movements can still be devastating to discourse. Can minority students truly speak freely if they are under constant threat from far-right white nationalist groups? While words themselves are not violent, they certainly have the power to encourage violence or intimidate with the threat of violence. It would be lying to say that threats or doxing, which would have to be permitted under a free speech absolutist doctrine, do not have the power to cause harm. Violent and intolerant ideologies can also spread through words and can take hold on campuses. As such, free speech absolutism is not a tenable policy.

As in the name, this is a paradox, and does not have an easy solution. However, I would venture forth a possible model: hate speech laws. Unlike the United States, most countries have laws prohibiting hate speech against protected groups. While these laws are unlikely to be implemented federally, a private university or other institution should be able to place such policies in order to protect minority students. This leaves plenty of room for rich discussion on many topics while seeking the protection of marginalized groups. No ones right to exist should be up for debate, and this is a way to protect speech on other points of policy while simultaneously ensuring that all people have security and freedom to be. How to define hate speech is another issue, and this is one which we can discuss, though marginalized groups affected by it should lead the discussion.

In addition to my disagreement regarding speech with the President, I also disagree with a part of his speech where he claimed that the left is censoring people and that the far left is equivalent to the far right as a threat. This mirrors comments which he made in November of 2020 on a Zoom call with students, where he mentioned both the far left and neo-Nazis as threats. While I recognize his right to this opinion, I do not believe this to be true on a few grounds. First, there is no organized far left in this country, while there is an organized far right. Regardless of what conservative pundits say, the Democratic Party is far from far left; most of the positions in the party platform would be considered centrist or even center-right in most of the world. There are outlying groups, such as the Communist Party USA, but these are very small groups with little to no political power or voice. On the other hand, there is an organized far right party: the Republican Party. It was members of that party which attempted to overthrow the government on January 6, which attempted to interfere with a fair and free election in the months leading up to it. Thus, the power of the far left and far right are not comparable.

Aside from organization, I would argue that the goals of far left and far right political movements are not equivalent. Far left political positions include policies like single-payer healthcare, environmentalism, and improved worker rights. Far right positions often (but not always) include suppression of dissent, religion in government, and occasionally genocide as seen in historic far right movements. I do not think it is honest to compare the former list to the latter. This does not of course mean that everyone on the far left is one way or everyone on the far right is another, but these tendencies suggest a major difference between the two.

While I differ on the details, I hope that this establishment of different viewpoints and discussion thereof allows us to establish a dialogue so that we might come to a better understanding of these issues and find a solution that works for all of us.

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Liberalism and the Paradox of Tolerance: Is the Marketplace of Ideas a Free-For-All? The Skidmore News - Skidmore News

Uptown resident Precious Tahiru just wants to hear her 2-year-old son say three things Mama, Dada and his name, Paris Thompson. Tahiru noticed a delay in her childs speech development at 10 months and set forth on trying to help him. That journey has entailed speech therapy, occupational therapy, as well as visiting an ear, nose and throat physician.

When I took him, the doctor said your son hears like hes in an airplane or underwater, so you guys talking to him, he can hear, but he cant hear you clearly, Tahiru said. Then he had a tongue tie (a condition that restricts a tongues range of motion). He couldnt move his tongue at all. And he couldnt breathe through his nose because his adenoids were so big, so he underwent surgery.

Since then, Tahiru and her fiance have seen a change in Paris hes moving his tongue, making sounds that he wasnt making before.

You can tell he can hear us better ... hes (more) quick to look at us now than he was before he got the surgery, she said.

And Paris journey continues. Thats why Tahirus excited about the opening of the DePaul Speech and Language Clinic at 2400 N. Sheffield Ave. What used to be the admissions office for DePaul University has been transformed to a space where youth and adults alike can get free services from speech language pathologists and clinicians who can aid people with problems with speech, language, communication and swallowing disorders.

We do everything from the neck up, said Treasyri Williams Wood clinic director and DePaul clinical assistant professor. Anything to do with the cognitive processes attention, organization, focus, language, speech, stuttering, fluency, swallowing. Just think of all of the people who have been placed on ventilators for COVID. You have to wean them off, teach them how to swallow, rehabilitate all of those muscles, rehabilitate their speech. That falls within our scope of practice and children on the autism spectrum, developmental delays, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, all of that we deal with. We have babies in the NICU who are born premature and need to work with speech language pathologists to acquire swallowing milestones and to develop language. We are truly an expansive scope.

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The Lincoln Park facility has been two years in the making, and launched in tandem with DePauls new masters degree program in Speech Language Pathology. Students in the program will work alongside faculty and provide care and therapy to the public. Services will be offered in English and Spanish; DePauls clinic and academic program also will offer specialized training for providing speech and language services to bilingual families and their children with disabilities. In addition to housing the clinic, the space will hold classrooms and hands-on learning for the Occupational Therapy graduate program that will launch in fall 2022. The School of Nursing and the Department of Psychology will collaborate on research and learning within the clinic.

The clinic held an open house Sept. 23. According to Jayne Jaskolski, director of the Speech Language Pathology graduate program, theres a waiting list already for screenings that will begin in October. The site will offer assistance to the public on a donation basis (which wont require insurance) or payment on a sliding scale.

We rely on the kindness of donors. ... Its really that altruistic mission focus of getting people who normally would not have access to these types of services access, and particularly for bilingual clients and people of color, said Williams Wood. Our big focus is on diversity, equity and inclusion, really training up and exposing our future speech language pathologists to the world for where it is right now.

Delilah Martin is a first year graduate student and wants to be able to give people their voice again. Shes trying to decide her niche in the speech pathology field. Shes interested in both sides of the age spectrum, helping children in schools and helping seniors. With a minor in psychology, she wants to be able to incorporate the mental health aspect into her work with the community.

I feel as clinicians, we need to be able to understand the mood of our patients to better assess them, she said. I love that the clinic offers free services. I think thats an amazing thing and makes me happy to be a part of this program.

Jaskolski and Williams Wood said the DePaul Speech and Language Clinic is the sole site offering such services for free in the heart of the city. Their location isnt limited to certain cases or disorders.

Were trying to rise to meet the needs of the community, Williams Wood said. That includes making diversity, inclusivity and access a priority both in the clinic and on the academic side. Williams Wood said shes done supervision with future clinicians who have never interacted with a person of color, or with someone from a different background. This space will help bridge that gap in a safe environment. Being a speech pathologist of color, Williams Wood is passionate about creating speech language pathologists who look like the populations they serve.

Our clients need to be able to look into the face of their providers and see themselves thats very important, she said. Often in these programs with university clinics and free clinics, we have nonwhite clients being serviced by this homogenous group of people that really dont have cultural competence. ... We have to train our graduate clinicians, and we have to expose them to a vast variety of cultures and different practices so that they can be ready and that starts here in our clinic.

Martin says cultural competency, especially in a field like speech pathology, is very important.

You cant promote something that you also dont embody yourself, she said. To see that we have a diverse faculty and to know there are people that understand, clinicians that look like you and understand you, bring that comfort and its something that makes me happy.

Faculty and students expect to treat 400 patients in the clinics first year. Tahiru found the facility through a referral from Marillac St. Vincent, where her son attends early Pre-K. Paris is now one of the clinics first clients.

I want to see Black and brown children running across our quad and receiving our services and I want them to feel like this clinic is their clinic, Williams Wood said. We say Chicago is our classroom, community is our focus. We have been blessed with this clinic space and this environment and these resources, and were giving them back to the community.

Martin said seeing a Black woman like Williams Wood lead the clinic gives her hope. Tahiru is also hopeful about the possibilities of the clinic helping her son.

Honestly, I want him to go at his pace, but of course I have more expectations for him, she said. I just want to hear three words. All I can do now is continue to give him all the resources that he needs, and DePaul will be a great resource.

drockett@chicagotribune.com

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DePaul University opens free Speech and Language Clinic with bilingual services: Our clients need to be able to look into the face of their providers...