Lee: Free speech is good for us all – Casper Star-Tribune Online

I was interested in the article in Wednesdays Star-Tribune on Sen. Anthony Bouchards reaction to students English project on concealed carry at the University of Wyoming. It seems the senator was upset with their research. The article goes on to say he threatened to fire the professor and end funding for the program. I hope this is not true.

Free speech at the University of Wyoming has had good times and bad. In April 1970, I was a student who marched to the flagpole on Prexys Pasture to protest the killing of four students at Kent State. There were a few hundred of us students at that time around the flagpole. The state police were called out. It took the Laramie police to broker a deal with the state police and the protesters to allow the overnight protest with the agreement to disband in the morning. The ability of the Laramie police to broker a standoff allowed for a nonviolent de-escalation and a peaceful resolution to free speech.

The peaceful resolution to the Carbon Sink sculpture on display outside Old Main in 2012 did not have the same positive outcome for free speech. The discussion of global warming around the sculpture irritated Wyomings energy industry. The industry contributes greatly financially to our university. Yet using that influence to silence thought or expression of art to stimulate discourse is dangerous. The sculpture was quietly removed during the spring of 2012. Currently, there is a rise of strong dictatorial leaders in the world (Sisi of Egypt, Erdogan of Turkey) who squelch free speech. We should not emulate such tyrants.

I was appalled at the rioting at the University California at Berkeley, when the Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos tried to speak on campus about alt-right white nationalist views. I deplore his message and bigoted views yet support his freedom to speak. I learned at a young age living in Chicago about free speech when the National Socialist Party of American (American Nazi party) wanted to march in Skokie, Illinois, in the summer of 1977 and wear their swastika armbands. Skokie at that time had the largest population of Jewish Holocaust survivors outside Israel. The Illinois Supreme Court ruled that the swastika was a form of free speech; thus, they could march with their symbols.

William Ayers, co-founder of the Weather Underground, was first denied the opportunity of speaking at the University of Wyoming in 2010 because of his 1960s militant past. Yet a judge declared the refusal by the university to allow him to speak was an obstruction of his fffreedom of speech. He spoke, and we all survived. Now, conservative pundit Ann Coulter has been denied by the University of California at Berkeley to speak on campus due to security concerns. I dont subscribe to her political philosophy, but I do support her right to speak. We cant allow extremists on the left or right to prevent free exchange of ideas.

Our greatest asset as a nation that separates us from all others is our ability to speak freely. Most importantly, our universities need to be spaces where our creativity grows, invents, develops and innovates for the future of our country and world. Fareed Zakaria, CNN news commentator and author of The Post-American World, commented about our American system of education. He stated that when he came to America from India to attend Harvard University, that this was his first experience at truly learning, having his thoughts challenged and exposed to widely differing views. The American system of learning is what makes it stand out from all other countries. This is because we embrace and protect our freedom of speech. To suppress speech, as I have shown above, only inhibits our growth as a country and a free society. There is room for dissenting opinions.

Bill Lee is a 1973 graduate from the University of Wyoming in social work. He worked and coached for 37 years as a school social worker in Lander.

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Lee: Free speech is good for us all - Casper Star-Tribune Online