The student
was Rebecca Beach, a freshman and member of a the local chapter
of Young Americans for Freedom (YAF), a respectable, mainstream
national conservative student organization created in 1960 with
assistance from William F. Buckley Jr. and other leaders of the
intellectual conservative movement. (Disclosure: I've been a guest
speaker in years past at YAF's annual student seminar at American
University in Washington, D.C.)
Rebecca's
crime was to invite Lt. Col. Scott Rudder, a decorated Iraq war
hero, to appear on campus on Nov. 17 to discuss with students
America's accomplishments in Iraq. She compounded this felony
by advertising the event via e-mail and by posting fliers around
campus contrasting the number of people killed under communist
regimes to those freed from communism by Ronald Reagan and worldwide
freedom movements.
So you know
where Daly sits before you hear where he stands, you should be
aware that he's a member of the Marxist Worker's World Party;
a regular correspondent to their newspaper, Workers World;
a gay activist; and an unsuccessful candidate for Congress in
California of the Peace and Freedom Party (self-described as a
"socialist and feminist political party" calling for
"collective ownership" of industry and "an unconditional
end to U.S. military intervention in the affairs of other nations").
None of this is illegal, of course, but it gives you a picture
of an angry, self-disenfranchised outcast from mainstream society.
That mentality comes through in these highlights from his e-mail
to Beach:
"I
am asking my students to boycott your event. I am also going
to ask others to boycott it. Your literature and signs in the
entrance lobby look like fascist propaganda and is \[sic] extremely
offensive. \[Daly is a professor of English!] Your main poster
"Communism killed 100,000,000 is not only untrue, but ignores
the fact that capitalism has killed many more and the evidence
for that can be seen in the daily newspapers . . . thanks to
the students of WCCC and other poor and working class people
who are recruited to fight and die for Exxon and other corporations
who are earning megaprofits from their imperialist plunders
. . . I will continue to expose your right-wing anti-people
politics until groups like yours won't dare show their face
on a college campus. Real freedom will come when soldiers in
Iraq turn their guns on their superiors and fight for just causes
and for people's needs."
1. Aleksander
Solzhenitsyn has eloquently testified, with first-hand knowledge,
to 100 million murdered under communism.
2. What standing
does Daly have to inflict his obtuse politics on his students
and urge them to boycott Rudder's talk? He's not even teaching
political science; it's a freakin' English class!
3. Typical
of radical leftist brownshirts, his notion of diversity of ideas
in higher education is to drive conservative groups off campus.
And he has the gall to direct the term "fascist" at
others! What would he say if a conservative professor wanted to
drive leftist groups off campus?
4. Daly isn't
merely disagreeing with our foreign policy in Iraq; he's advocating
that American soldiers murder their sergeants and officers!
Typical of
pusillanimous administrators, the college has posted a statement
on its Web site diplomatically divorcing itself from Daly's comments,
but invoking its support of the First Amendment, adding that it's
reviewing this as a personnel issue. The First Amendment protects
Daly's speech, repugnant as it is, from prosecution at the hands
of government. As an employee, he's not immune from disciplinary
action for his abusive behavior toward a student. Ironically,
it's the free speech of conservative students at the college that's
under assault here.
Beach says
Daly has created a hostile learning environment and has called
for Warren President William Austin to require intolerant leftists,
like Daly, to attend mandatory seminars on free speech, sensitivity
and respect for differing opinions.
I'd say Beach
is being far too lenient. Daly has exposed himself as a bigot
and a hysterical seditionist. His intolerance is an affront to
the basic tenet of collegiality to which institutions of higher
learning claim to adhere. He has disqualified himself as a responsible
steward of impressionable young minds. His words are to intellectual
discourse as a cesspool is to the Seven Seas. And he doesn't even
have tenure. If the Warren County Community College administration
has any decency, self-respect and backbone, they'll throw the
bum out.
Mike Rosen's radio show airs
daily from 9 a.m. to noon on 850 KOA.
