Who Is Protecting Whom?
As a faculty person in an institution of Higher Education for eleven years, it has recently come to my attention the deplorable treatment of a student of yours named John Wahlberg. What a horrible example of academic freedom, intellectual honesty, and a clear violation of the First Amendment. So what if some students felt "scared and uncomfortable?" These students are ADULTS are they not? Would anyone on your campus, not believe for second, that many of those same (alleged) students in Ms. Anderson class, on any given Friday night, observe if not participate in all kinds of risky behaviors- that should make them "scared and uncomfortable"? In addition, are there not other presentations given by other students throughout the course of the year, on other subjects, that make other students "scared and uncomfortable?" In the spirit of consistency, are they in like manner censured and reported to the Campus Police? When a student asks for directions to the Campus Police Headquarters, could they use the word "Gulag" as a synonym instead? Thankfully it appears as if at least your Campus Police (professional skilled labor - right?) maintained their reason - noting that Mr. Wahlberg owned Firearms legally.
Question: Does Ms. Anderson participate in an academic enterprise, or provide nanny services? If students felt "scared and uncomfortable" then it would be HER responsibility to help those students in class process the information in a redemptive manner. Pedagogically: It would seem prudent, if not scholastically respectable to not ask students to discuss controversial subjects in class, and then NOT BE PREPARED to process that subject in a helpful and informative manner - in a kind of let say Renaissance Spirit. A fair, cursory survey of the role of Firearms in the History and current Culture of the United States could have done much to inform those students in her class.
I wonder.... Just how safe do you think many of your students now feel when it comes to the pursuit of study and discussion of those subjects that Ms. Anderson (and by extension YOUR university) deems to be dangerous, risky and politically incorrect? I am quite sure that many of them now feel much more cautious (read "scared") and inhibited (read "uncomfortable") to engage in the free world of ideas. I had heard, although I cannot confirm this, that Mr. Wahlberg was required to be psychologically evaluated before he could return to class. IF this is true, I could conclude nothing other than your institution as being ideologically totalitarian (now I am "scared" and "uncomfortable"). Imagine what some students and observers could only conclude: "Because you don't value, behave and THINK like we do... we are concerned that you might be mentally ill." Have the life and writings of Soviet dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn not taught us anything? How about the little book written by George Orwell - Animal Farm? Ms. Anderson might want to read that again (if she has) - particularly the very last chapter about how (strictly and metaphorically speaking) really ended up looking like who! Is Ms. Anderson from the former Soviet Union?
The incredible irony is that Mr. Wahlberg was discussing, in the spirit of academic freedom, ideas that some people can use to protect themselves in the face of unforeseen violence. Were you there to protect him when academia threatened to do violence to his intellectual freedom and his first amendment rights? I genuinely hope that Ms. Anderson has been educated by your administration thoroughly on these matters and that the rest of your faculty have had opportunity to discuss and process this tragic event in the kind of informed manner that everyone is served and edified by it. If not, I am afraid it would be the height of scholastic hypocrisy.
Sincerely
Rich Grassel
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