At the University, as at other universities, freedom of expression – long taken for granted under a Constitution that guarantees it – is becoming less secure, as it is throughout our nation. At the federal level, legitimate concern over national security has allowed something illegitimate to threaten us: A paranoid president who has traded values of law for shallow autocracy.
Two major programs at the University, on May 18 and 19, show us how easy it is to trash our chances to speak openly. Thursday, Ward Churchill speaks in the EMU Ballroom, where just two years ago his public views on the cause of 9/11 resulted in his being denied the right to speak as scheduled. Friday, Middle East authority Jeff Blankfort appears at the University Gumwood Room to describe how a foreign nation’s lobby expands the influence of Israel on campus and in government.
As a member of the Wayne Morse Board of Eugene, I feel there is ironic necessity for him to visit the statue of the senator at the Morse Free Speech Plaza of the Lane County Building. Morse would not have tolerated denial of Churchill’s freedom of speech by Morse-related programs. He also would have challenged fellow legislators who allow themselves to be intimidated by Israeli lobbies. His righteous indignation would have soared even higher over Lane County’s decision to pull the plug on the Morse Youth free speech amplification on Saturdays at the Morse Plaza.
Not all are willing to hear a Churchill speak, nor be exposed to Israel’s ominous infiltration of our government. No surprise in a nation where just a year ago, a majority approved of George Bush’s war policies. That’s fair.
People should have the freedom to listen to what they wish. But the principle becomes endangered when they allow a voice to be silenced.
Efforts to silence have been underlying factors in attempts by some to quell free expression about Israel on the University campus. A good example is New York Post columnist Daniel pipes labeling University faculty member Doug Card anti-Semetic in 2004. Card brought a libel suit against Pipes for wrongly alleging he made anti-Semitic comments. The Pipes pattern of intimidation is found in two lower profile incidents affecting the sponsor of the Blankfort appearance. The Pacifica Forum was ejected from two campus meeting sites by frightened sponsors who gave it no hearing on charges of anti-Semitism erroneously leveled by two individuals. Then a member of the Forum was labeled anti-Semitic in three published letters from faculty members who reacted to his claim that absence of a Middle East Studies program allows Israel to get favored emphasis in the curriculum.
There is room for differences of opinion on a campus committed to free expression. Concern has to grow when some attempt to squelch it.
George Beres has been manager of the UO Speakers Bureau and a member of the Oregon Interreligious Committee for Peace in the Middle East