Re: What's Really Happening

This is the kind of out of context stuff that really p*sses me off. That bit below about the San Diego University student was originally listed, as an excerpt, not the whole article, on a Wall Street Journal page of links to current stories (sorry, can’t find that link just now). The excerpt makes it look like poor Zewdalem Kebede’s freedom of speech was squashed by an unseeing, unthinking, politically correct university bureaucracy. The excerpt version has been making the rounds by email as a cause celeb among Republicans here in the US.

If you go out and read the WHOLE story you’ll find a whole lot more to it than what it appears to be in the excerpt. (http://thedailyaztec.com/Archive/Fall-2001/10-17-01/city/city01.html) What you’ll find there changes the subject of the incident from one of restricting free speech of one student, to one of limiting potentially violent confrontations between students on campus. At least, that’s what I read into the whole story version.

Needless to say I was first made aware of the excerpt version by a very right leaning friend of mine, who was having a fit of moral outrage over this. That he’s now on board with all the new civil liberty restrictions is a curious contradiction, to say the least.

Tom

PS. BTW, an unofficial scorecard for this particular thread:

Lefties = 75%
Righties = 15%
No side taken = 10%
Wish we'd get back to music oriented threads = 100% :-)

On Mon, 05 November 2001, Scott Deschaine wrote:

>
> If you want to read some really scary stifling of free speech, check out this...
>
> http://www.thefire.org/issues/terror.php3
>
> or here
>
> http://www.politechbot.com/p-02703.html
>
> Here's a sample:
>
> * At San Diego State University, an international student, Zewdalem Kebede,
> overheard several other students, speaking loudly in Arabic, express delight about the
> terrorist attacks. Kebede engaged the students and, in Arabic, challenged
> their positions. Kebede was accused by San Diego State University of abusive
> behavior toward the four students. A University judicial officer formally
> admonished Kebede and warned him that "future incidents [will result in]
> serious disciplinary sanctions."
>
> Now that's scary!
>
> The last of my off-topic posts...

Find the best deals on the web at AltaVista Shopping! http://www.shopping.altavista.com Received on 7 Nov 2001 09:31:21 -0800