Free Speech for Me, Not for Thee
I received this note this day in my mail.
“Mr. Wright, I find myself and my compatriots in need of assistance.I am a member in Northern Kentucky University’s pro-life group, Northern Right to Life. Since our conception, every year when we put up our displays, which are obviously anti-abortion, they are vandalized and torn down.
The year we were founded, Professor Sally Jacobson took her class outside to tear down our Cemetery of Innocents (the one with the hundreds of white crosses representing the murdered children). She was let go, but the damage continues.
It has happened again this year.
Our “Onesie Display”, some clotheslines with baby clothes hung and every fourth garment marked with a red X in tape for the one out of four children murdered, has been torn down twice in as many days. The cops have been notified, and are taking measures to stop this. However, I am tired of it, and with the approval of my President have decided to start as much of a Publicity Firestorm as I can.
I have already been interviewed by the Campus Paper, though I am not sure if this will be used for article fodder. I would go to the local news, but this seems like something they would consider to small to mention.
This is where you may be able to help. If you could make some sort of mention of this on your blog, and if possible contact Marc Barnes of bad Catholic and any other bloggers sympathetic to the cause, all of us would be immensely grateful.
At your service, Mr. Nathaniel Thomas Hall
Since the display is only up until Easter, I thought I should simply post his letter and ask anyone interested in free speech and saving babies and all the things the PC-niks hate to gin up some publicity for this guy.
Here is an article on the events of last year: http://studentsforlife.org/2012/04/03/pro-life-clothesline-ripped-down-at-northern-kentucky-university/
Michelle Malkin also has a piece on last years vandalism: http://michellemalkin.com/2006/04/14/the-crosses-they-cannot-bear/ And Michelle Malkin gives additional information. Note below particularly the Professor’s insistence that how she “feels” is paramount in deciding what speech shall be permitted in the public agora.
wrecking pro-life display of crosses(via Cincinnati Enquirer):
HIGHLAND HEIGHTS – A professor at Northern Kentucky University said she invited students in one of her classes to destroy an anti-abortion display on campus Wednesday evening.
NKU police are investigating the incident, in which 400 crosses were removed from the ground near University Center and thrown in trash cans. The crosses, meant to represent a cemetery for aborted fetuses, had been temporarily erected last weekend by a student Right to Life group with permission from NKU officials.
Public universities cannot ban such displays because they are a type of symbolic speech that has been protected by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Witnesses reported “a group of females of various ages” committing the vandalism about 5:30 p.m., said Dave Tobertge, administrative sergeant with the campus police.
Sally Jacobsen, a longtime professor in NKU’s literature and language department, said the display was dismantled by about nine students in one of her graduate-level classes.
“I did, outside of class during the break, invite students to express their freedom-of-speech rights to destroy the display if they wished to,” Jacobsen said.
Asked whether she participated in pulling up the crosses, the professor said, “I have no comment.”
She said she was infuriated by the display, which she saw as intimidating and a “slap in the face” to women who might be making “the agonizing and very private decision to have an abortion.”
Jacobsen said it originally wasn’t clear who had placed the crosses on campus.
She said that could make it appear that NKU endorsed the message.
Pulling up the crosses was similar to citizens taking down Nazi displays on Fountain Square, she said.
“Any violence perpetrated against that silly display was minor compared to how I felt when I saw it. Some of my students felt the same way, just outraged,” Jacobsen said.
NKU President James Votruba said any evidence of criminal conduct in the incident will be turned over to prosecutors. He said he appreciated the emotional nature of the abortion debate and was glad that diverse viewpoints are represented at the school, but he condemned the destruction of the crosses.
“Freedom-of-speech rights end where you infringe on someone else’s freedom of speech,” Votruba said.
“I don’t buy the claim that this is an act of freedom of speech, to destroy property.”
He said he was gathering information about the extent of Jacobsen’s participation.
“I don’t know if she was pulling up the crosses, but I think she was out there with the students. If so, as far as I’m concerned, she went outside the conditions of her employment,” Votruba said.
He declined to say what consequences she might face. Jacobsen is a tenured professor who has been at NKU since 1980.
Come on, New Media! No one else will spread this story!
Andrew Breitbart was right: THE MEDIA ARE THE ENEMY. If you need proof of the statement, look here: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/trayvon-martin-nbc-news-editing-911-call-306359 (NBC has since apologized. But they continue to pretend they are objective newsmen, not partisan propagandists.)
ADDENDUM
Mr Hall adds this comment to his previous letter:
At my own Northern Kentucky University, the campus pro-life group (Northern Right to Life) currently has a display against Abortion up.
It is an entirely legal and approved display in the correct provided display area.
And yet someone, or some group of people, has decided that it is not okay for us to have such threatening things as baby clothes, red tape, and a sign explaining that 1 out of 4 babies is murdered through abortion. They have vandalized our display twice in as many days.
Both times the damage was done under cover of darkness, with only the eyes of their possible fellow transgressors and God upon them as they went about their criminal business.
Those who shriek the loudest for Freedom and Truth and Fairness are those who are denying myself and my associates the Freedom of Expression, our right to assert what we believe as Truth, and our ability to fairly represent ourselves.
This sort of behavior has been a part of the local environment since the founding of the campus pro-life group, when a certain Professor Sally Jacobson, who was let go on account of her behavior, took her class outside to tear down the crosses in our Cemetery of of Innocents display.
There has not been a year when flyers, crosses, and other displays have not been torn apart or broken. Some of our members have caught people in the act of tearing down our flyers. We have endured despite this, and we shall continue to do so. Though of different creeds, we are united in purpose.
We will not stop until Abortion is dead, or we are, even if it takes our whole lifetime and the lifetimes of those that shall take our place when we pass on. We will take buffets, spitting, and curses.
You can beat us, chain us, gag us, even slay us. We shall not be silent. We shall not admit defeat. This is our resolve.
To those of you who side with us, pray to whatever God or gods you serve, and be prepared for the fight of your lives.
To which I say, Amen.
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
