Roger's View of the World, Love and Seafood Gumbo!
Seize the Day! Put no trust in the morrow! — Horace
Cal Poly and their foibles
( posted for Laura Freberg)
I was asked to give a lecture and mine was entitled “Think like a Scientist.”
Here I am with friends and new friends from College of the Canyons.
One of my students Nate Honeycutt presented on a Political Psychology study involving over 700 faculty that created a lot of buzz!
Conferences are great experiences for budding academicians and master professors alike!
I am always surprised at how many folks take for granted but few use their right to freely speak their mind in public. However, using your right to speak is a two edge sword. I have always felt that the best way to let a fool reveal themselves is to give them a podium, a microphone or even a blog. This is not to say that everyone should cower and hide from any public interaction in order to not seem foolish, but having an open environment that can test the worthiness of ideas is the best way for a society to address emerging social issues and economic and political challenges. A good idea can stand the test of a little scrutiny, a bad idea shows itself for what it is.
Our future President James Madison drafted the first amendment to the US Constitution to include our right to free speech , but he was not without his detractors. A number of people felt that speech should be strictly muzzled, but this ran against the grain of all those who were trying to get away from the European system of royalty, restrictive rules and trade castes. For example, you might know that George Washington turned down the ‘offer’ to be King. Eventually, other freedoms were added to the first amendment such as freedom of the press and freedom of religion and association. Although this isn’t very popular in academic circles to say, these ‘founding fathers’ got it right.
However, there are those, especially in Europe, that have made it an art form to restrict free speech and there are those here in academia in America who would like to do the same in our country. Let’s just say its wrong morally and it is unconstitutional.
Not long ago, I took a very strong position in my blog on ‘an issue of public interest’ involving our local university and a ‘Kingdom” not known for it’s toleration or acceptance of diversity or free speech. One administrator took exception to my blogs and sued me for all sorts of bad things. As it turned out, the judge ruled that my blogs were constitutionally protected free speech and that I was blogging on an issue of public interest. (You can search my blog under Saudi Arabia and read more about the issue.)
READ the most recent article here.
The lesson here is not to be afraid, but to stand up and express yourself when it counts on matters and issues that you feel are important to you and those you love. Interesting times are coming and it is important for everyone to be heard.
Let’s not dwell too much on the nuances of newspaper misquotes, but as I am cleaning up some of the issues surrounding a free speech lawsuit in which I prevailed, I thought it important enough to ensure that the record was made clear.
Search “Cal Poly and Saudi Arabia” and you will read what the story was really about. It was concerning a large public concern by many – including me – that Cal Poly was planning to do the business of setting up engineering classes in Saudi Arabia. It seems rather clear — at least to me — that only certain people would be invited to teach and others would be systematically excluded. Would women be allowed to teach? I think not.
I asked a military officer where all the ‘foreign fighters’ ( our media loves to use words that shows they don’t take sides) were originating? In the early days, so many were coming from Saudi Arabia, but this torrent has since been reduced to a trickle … it seems that volunteers are now getting hard to find. Now-a-days, I understand many ‘foreign fighters’ are coming from north Africa.
So given what I just said, my question to Cal Poly was a simple one: was there a chance that we would be providing certain Saudis with skills that could be used against us? So I asked in my blog: (is) “Cal Poly … training tomorrow’s terrorists?”
Free speech may have died in England and is crippled in Europe … but for now, if we are vigilant, the right of free speech will continue to help us ask those tough questions which will help us find American solutions to the problems of our day.
In a previous post, I alluded to the fact that I was being sued for what amounted to exercising my constitutionally protected free speech in a matter of public interest. CalCoastNews.com covered this in a recent story entitled ” Blogger Wins Free Speech battle, Cal Poly Dean Loses.” Here is pictured the ‘tentative ruling’ … which became the final ruling.
Read CalCoastNews analysis for their insightful look at the defense of free speech in the public interest!
My Previous Free Speech BLOG: “Without the ability to speak freely, we have nothing!”
Unless you have had your work or your existence censored or found yourself defending your free speech in a court of law, you probably take it for granted that you can have ‘an opinion.’ You might even think that having a popular opinion might protect you; however, this hasn’t worked in Syria, Iran or other places where the exercise of an opinion, no matter how innocent, is immune from persecution or death. I may seem a bit corny to remind others that many of those who signed the Declaration of Independence paid a great price for their exercise of free will. Free Speech is what democracies do…. it is what we are and without it we are like every other despotic system.
In the competitive market place of ideas, speaking freely allows us all to test our values and beliefs and redefine or reshape them, but this is heresy in many parts of the world. ‘Speech’ via ‘speech codes’ is also a central concept under attack in our academic environments. For those who would like to turn the direction of a new generation of our youth, they must manipulate our language to restrict the use of words, meanings and general expression. If you forbid some topics from being studied or discussed ( in some circles , these are referred to as ‘the undiscussables’) then the censors win and we lose and human progress is halted and frozen in time. Let me just add, that this is not a good thing.
Not every university is backward, the University of Virginia has earned the coveted ‘GREEN’ light designation from FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights in Education). Only a few universities have been so honored. I recommend that you take the time to see what FIRE does to support free expression on college campuses…. and do what you can to support them. They deserve all our support no matter your political orientation.
I have been named in a suit back in December for blogs related to an issue of great ‘public interest.’ CHECK CalCoastNews.Com and their archive for more.
Stay tuned for more.
Roger Freberg