Letter to the editor: UK contradicts itself on limiting free speech

Dear President Capilouto,

You speak from both sides of your mouth — one supporting free speech, and another stifling it.  May I quote you?  “Our University welcomes the free exchange of ideas,” and “Our University has no patience for the peddlers of poisonous views.”  Your statements are contradictory, in my opinion.

”…Candidates for public office were invited to campus,” and then a microphone was disconnected in the middle of write-in Senate candidate Robert Ransdell’s speech.  You applaud that disconnection loudly.  His comments, though reflecting what many view as anger and ignorance, are free speech; they are not “cloaked” in it as if covert or unseen.

Correctly, you say “Everyone is free to believe what they believe; and say what they want to say.”  And then you say one man’s beliefs have “no place in our community.”

For years on this campus, a fire-and-brimstone preacher has hollered and insulted numerous people from the free speech area behind the Student Center.  I didn’t, and don’t agree with his line of thought, but I certainly did believe in his constitutional right to speak freely, so when he addressed me, I just bid him a good day and went on my way.

Back in 1990, Jello Biafra burned an American flag during his speech here on campus.  This was offensive and supremely radical to many, but his right to free speech protected it.   I’ve heard and probably said some left-field stuff in classes here at UK.

Whose job is it to decide what is foolish and ill informed?  Are you the keeper of what’s ignorant and what’s not?  Will you also decide those things about evolution and creationism?  Who will decide what’s allowed in political speech and what’s not?

What you and others involved here have missed is a teaching opportunity.  Isn’t it funny that teaching and learning are what this university is about?  Why not write to us, and those high school students, about your positions on race, refute the Ransdell’s ideas and add your thoughts about free speech?

I don’t agree with that man.  I find his ideas repugnant, as most on this campus would.  Free speech is ugly at times, as in this case, but it is to be vehemently protected, not self-righteously dismissed.

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