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Last week at Columbia University, members of the International Socialist Organization and other student groups violently rushed the stage during a speech by Jim Gilchrist of the Minuteman Project. This is the same university that employs this year’s Nobel Prize winner in economics. They are obviously capable of intelligent endeavor.
In a rare moment of honesty, an International Socialist member who was too cowardly to be identified said, “It [the protest and rushing of the stage] was fundamentally a part of free speech. The Minutemen are not a legitimate part of the debate on immigration.” Words fail to convey the absurdity of this position, to at one instant wrap oneself in the shroud of Free Speech while at the same time insisting that dissenting points of view cannot be presented. It is a rather delicious bit of unintentional irony.
The fact is, this kind of behavior is an outgrowth of what the University environment has become. Few people discuss and debate opposing points of view, they simply sneer in elitist condescension at opposing points of view. See, if the other side was enlightened, they’d know what we’re talking about. There are only two parts of a debate, the enlightened elite and the uneducated rubes. While this has generally been a left-to-right dynamic, those on the right seem to be perfectly willing to return the favor.
The result is masses of activists stirred up with a fervor that rivals all the accusations of the “blind faith” of the religious. It is where the ad hominem is the first step in a disagreement. It is only natural that acts of violence flow from this mindless conformity to unquestioned ideas. The University, once the first and best place for the free exchange of ideas, has become the worst place for such a debate.
This is not a problem particular to Columbia; even the University of Illinois in Champaign (not commonly thought of as a liberal bastion) has had issues like this occur. In 2004, a group of protestors engaged in a violent occupation of the campus’ administration building. Such antics are not atypical for a campus environment. They are so convinced of their causes; they feel they don’t have to bother with intelligent discussion. Such is the disposition of a revolutionary.
The latest incident at Columbia should be a wake up call to universities everywhere. Either we return to the free exchange of ideas principle on campus or these acts of violence will continue and escalate.
John Bambenek is the Assistant Politics Editor for Blogcritics and is an academic professional for the University of Illinois. He is a columnist for the Daily Illini and blogs at Part-Time Pundit deep from the corn fields of Illinois.
He is the current owner of BlogSoldiers, a blog-only traffic exchange.
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By Diane of Diane’s Stuff, via Third World County
As I’ve said countless times on my own blog, I am not a very political animal. I have my opinions on things of a political nature but I rarely express them, and I very seldom post on anything political because I don’t feel as if I’m well enough informed on particular issues. I do have an opinion on whether or not there should be a fence along the border between Mexico and the States, and it has always seemed like a very good idea to me.
Living in Texas I see a lot of illegals and every time I see someone that’s clearly Hispanic in front of me in the grocery store, paying for their food with a LoneStar Card (plastic food stamps) or presenting a WIC form, I have to wonder how much of that is going to sustain illegal cousins, brothers, aunts, uncles, etc. I’m not naive enough to think that the only nationality that can use our Southern borders as a crossing is Mexican, but let’s be honest here for a minute; aren’t they the main concern?
I posted some time ago about Governor Rick Perry’s “Virtual Border Watch Program” and I thought that too was a good idea.
With voluntary participation of private landowners, Texas will use $5 million to begin placing hundreds of surveillance cameras along criminal hotspots and common routes used to enter this country. Perry said the cameras will cover vast stretches of farm and ranchland located directly on the border where criminal activity is known to occur, and “not the neighborhoods where families will continue to enjoy their privacy.”
“Landowners will be able to monitor and defend their property from those who might endanger their families. We will make the video feed available to state, local and federal law enforcement agencies so they can respond swiftly and appropriately,” Perry said. “And we will post this video on the Internet – in real time – so that concerned Americans can help protect our nation through online neighborhood watch programs.”
The video will be available 24 hours a day and cameras will be equipped with night vision capabilities. When citizens witness a crime taking place, they will be able to call an 800 number and be routed to the appropriate law enforcement agency.
It just so happens that I have friends who have a 700-acre ranch that also includes a 1/2 mile of river frontage on the Rio Grande. While small by Texas standards, their nearest neighbor is 6 miles away, and the closest town of any size is Presidio where there is a Point of Entry via an International Bridge. Naturally, there is also an Immigration office. This town is approximately 28 miles from my friends ranch, and the other nearby towns are Ruidosa, population 19 and Candelaria, population estimated at 55. They don’t live down there, they’re hoping to retire there though, and they go several times a year to camp out and stay for a week or two at a time. Here is a picture taken on their ranch.
And another-
As you can see it’s very isolated.
I was visiting with these friends a few days ago and the conversation got around to the ranch and when they were going again and as I know the property is right on the border I asked their opinion of building a fence. Below is a quote sent to me via email after I’d asked a few more questions prior to beginning this post.
Candelaria is the last town on Hwy 170 or “river road” as it is known. The population there is a bit bigger I would guess around 30 or so. It is about 20 miles or so after Ruidosa. There is a sign when you get there that “State Maintenance Ends Here”. The dirt road goes on from there to El Paso, about 140 miles I was told, but you ain’t gonna get there unless you have a 4 x 4, extra gas and tires. The dirt road is where I was telling you about the trolleys that go across the river and the religious icons stuff set in small caves along the road. People out there still live in adobe houses and have no phone, lights or other essentials. Our very own 3rd world.
Another interesting fact about Candelaria is the foot bridge from the States to Mexico there (not an authorized crossing). The bridge was paid for with Russian humanitarian aid money! Can you believe that shit…:)
Once you get past the town they couldn’t even get the equipment in there to build the damn fence. Plus all the cattle ranchers on the river from Presidio on would just cut it to allow their cattle to get to the river for water…. it is the desert after all and water is a very scarce resource. A few are lucky enough to have artesian wells but most rely on what rain water they can trap and the river.
As you can tell from that quote they don’t have much faith in a fence doing any good. I asked then what their opinion of the Minutemen was and was told that “Their hearts are in the right place, and they have the right idea, but they’re spread too thin to do a whole lot of good.” So of course I asked what they thought would work. Guards, guards and more guards. An armed border.
One of the reasons they gave me for this was that even if someone saw the illegal crossers climbing or cutting through a fence, say, via Texas Governor Rick Perry’s camera idea, or the Minutemen calling someone, they would be long gone before anyone in authority arrived, particularly in their area where the road is far from straight, two-laned, and often has livestock wandering around. They say that it’s just too desolate to do any good without men on the ground, and then you have the water/rancher/cattle factor to deal with also.
They tell me that at night you can see lights back and forth all night and that while they feel fairly safe during the day, only seeing a few people with bags ready to swim across when they’re down on the riverfront also swimming, that it’s dangerous to be there alone. My friend’s mother recently stated that she wanted to get away, go down there and camp on her own, and they told her absolutely not, no way, even though she’s the best shot they know. There are too many drug runners mixed in with illegal wannabes, and even though there’s the INS station less than 30 miles away in Presidio, that they very seldom see anyone on patrol and we’re only talking here about a very, very small portion of the TEXAS border.
So what’s the solution? To fence or not to fence? Armed guards? It’s a tough one, but I agree, something MUST be done. I think my piranha idea is sounding better all the time.
This has been a production of the Guard the Borders Blogburst. It was started by Euphoric Reality, and serves to keep immigration issues in the forefront of our minds as we’re going about our daily lives and continuing to fight the war on terror. If you are concerned with the trend of illegal immigration facing our country, join our Blogburst! Just send an email with your blog name and url to admin at guardtheborders dot com.
See this image? Neville Chamberlain held this piece of paper up after the Munich Conference of September 1938, at which he sold Czechoslovakia down the river in exchange for “peace for our time.” One year later, Hitler invaded Poland…and World War II was on.
Now, look very carefully at Jay’s photo below and burn it…no, sear it, sear it into your memory. See? John Kerry’s quote is good for something!
There are a number of parties which we can directly attribute their actions to enable North Korea’s nuclear test last evening, and none of them are President Bush. We can start here: Madeline Albright, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton (at least he wasn’t getting visits from Monica at the time) NEGOTIATED with this little madman, and he promptly turned his back on said agreement and went right on developing uranium and plutonium enrichment capabilities.
Just like Hitler.
We can also place the Chinese squarely in the picture, since North Korea is their client state. They could have brought Kim to heel, but they chose not to. Now, both Japan and Taiwan, not to mention South Korea, could all have nuclear arsenals of their very own within six months, and this is not something China bargained for. God only knows what the Russians think of this: after all, Vladivostok is also within range of North Korean missiles.
And the Donks? They’re too busy salivating at the salacious details of former Representative Mark Foley’s pecadilloes with young men to give a damn. This is what the world has come to.
