Free Speech, Hate, and Community
This winter term, the UO has hosted an open and free—and unplanned—colloquium on that bedrock principle of our country and our university: free speech.
In case you haven’t heard, the University’s commitment to free speech has been tested by a group called the Pacifica Forum, a “discussion” group founded by emeritus professor Orville Etter, which meets weekly on campus. The group is in no way affiliated with the University, but access to University facilities is one of the privileges granted to emeritus faculty members. In recent years, this open discussion “on war and peace, militarism and pacifism, violence and nonviolence,” has become a safe haven for people with blatantly racist, sexist, and anti-Semitic views. Following a December meeting at which a forum participant reportedly gave a Nazi salute, students launched a series of protests with some calling for the University to ban the group from meeting on campus. In our Summer issue, we will present some student views of this controversy, which is still being heatedly debated.
But while the controversy continues, I want to salute the initial responses of student leadership, the University administration, and the University community. The student senate rejected a resolution that would have called for kicking the forum off campus, later passing a resolution supporting the students who were protesting against the forum. The administration condemned the content of the hateful speech coming out of the forum, but refused to use that as a pretense to ban it. To reduce tension, the administration wisely moved the forum meeting location from the EMU in proximity to student groups who were threatened by the rhetoric coming out of the forum or angry about it (or both) to Agate Hall on the southeastern edge of campus.
And when the tension surrounding these issues was ratcheted up a notch by vandalism—a swastika spray-painted into the carpet in the office of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered, and Queer Alliance—the University community responded swiftly, condemning that act and offering support to the group who had been attacked through statements, vigils, and marches. The Oregon Daily Emerald quoted a freshman staff person from LGBTQA: “Seeing the way this community has responded to this event and the feeling of love . . . I know that, now, for every tear shed in the past couple of days, every time we felt broken, victimized, or sad . . . it was all worth it.”
The spray painting is a crime for which the perpetrators should be prosecuted and punished. But free speech—even hateful speech—is a fundamental right of all Americans and should be protected, especially in places that make their living on the vitality of open discourse. Speech that challenges a community’s normative values is the speech most in need of protection. In the past—the-not-too-distant past in some cases—speech that promoted interracial harmony, women’s rights, peace, workers’ rights, and open acceptance of gays and lesbians was considered destructive and evil—hateful, even—in some American communities (see page 34; see also related stories on pages 18 and 38).
An argument for banishing the Pacifica Forum is that the platform it provides for nouveau Nazis and others make some students feel unsafe on campus. Unfortunately—or fortunately, really—we can’t and shouldn’t try to make people feel safe by sheltering them from ideas that make them uncomfortable. But we can and should try to make them feel safe by responding as a community to those who preach hate and intolerance. If a community does not stand up to rebuke purveyors of bigotry, then people should feel unsafe and we are all the lesser for it.
But so far, through this unplanned real-world course of study, the UO has done well in teaching all of us about the complexities of free speech and the power of a community to defend its members from expressions of hate.
Slim Memories
In 1986 I met Watermelon Slim [“Continuing Education,” Winter 2009] at a blues jam at Taylor's, hosted by Roosterman, and we put a band together with Dick Robataille (drums) and Low Robert (bass). Slim sang and played harmonica, and I played guitar. The band was called Blues Fuse. We did gigs at some of the smaller clubs in town. If you saw any of those gigs you were fortunate. When he was “on,” Slim was electrifying. I have some tapes of those gigs and they make my hair stand on end! My son was three at the time and Slim found a teddy bear somewhere (I don’t want to know) that was about four feet high that he gave to him. It was a big hit.
I’m so glad Slim is still out there working. Thank you for sharing his story.
By the way, if anyone wants to get a flavor of what he does they should Google Watermelon Slim and see his video of “Smokestack Lightning.” He is just amazingly authentic!
Lawrence T. Ward Jr. ’87, M.U.P. ’94
Platteville, Wisconsin
Middle Class Path?
The Winter issue arrived at our address since our daughter graduated from the UO but does not live at home. Two things stood out: one article entitled “A Pathway to Graduation” [UpFront] and the ad for “A Place to Call Home.”
The article indicates that a select group of students who come from families earning less than $28,000 are the recipients or winners of what I would call the “education lottery” with the parameters (those being income) chosen by the University. The prize: tuition and fees paid for four years. How wonderful that they will graduate with no student loans. I would say in this economy that gives them a big step up. Is the University also placing them in jobs after graduation? As a resident of this state for twenty years plus with two daughters who graduated from the UO with student loans, this giveaway annoys me. As middle class people who have worked and paid our bills and taxes, we believe this exclusion of our children because we make too much money is economic discrimination. Don’t you think that, given the chance, I would have loved to use my taxes specifically for my children so they would not have to be in debt? Yet they are taken and the University dispenses them as it sees fit. Has the University ever heard that when people are given things without having to do anything for them they generally don’t appreciate the gift as much as if they had worked for it? Now the University will retort that these lucky few have to keep grades up and so on, but I say let them take student loans out like a majority of students and work a job as well as go to school. Having an income of less than $28,000 does not mean that those students are less capable of staying in school because in the article it states that “many of these students were just as certain that they would find a way to attend college.” Why didn’t the University let them try?
The second comment concerns the ad for a building to be used as “the dynamic new entry point to the University of Oregon campus . . .” Why is the University in these times pursuing the building boom? Especially for structures whose sole purpose is other than educational? I realize that it is being funded by former graduates who have done well but why not concentrate on educating citizens without saddling them with ten or more years of debt?
A few suggestions from a taxpayer who would like my contribution used for the betterment of the students, not the glory of the University of Oregon and its administration. Why not have a tuition-and-fee freeze for middle-class students? Since the administration does not need to worry about the wealthy paying their student’s bills and can provide tuition and fee costs for those making under $28,000, it seems a fair treatment for all students. Isn’t that what this “redistribution” is all about, making a level playing field for everyone? My last suggestion is, quit building structures that do not directly serve the students—instead focus, as I believe all universities should, on educating students to be productive and worthy people who will ultimately make this world a better place.
Sheilah D. DeBlander
Salem
Your Winter 2009 issue was a pleasure. It made so many faces and facets of the UO, past and present, come alive. “America’s Amazon,” “Roman Holiday,” and “Where Have All the Lesbians Gone?” [UpFront]—all show that academics can be a joy to read.
Chris Dawe Bettis Adams ’68, M.L.S. ’69
Portland
I really enjoyed the article “Roman Holiday” [Upfront]. Mary Jaeger did a nice job of telling us about some of the history behind our holiday customs. It’s interesting to find out how far back in time that the origins of these traditions go. I especially liked the part about the master reversed with the slaves at holiday time. I know that when I was in the Army, the officers did serve the meal at holiday time. Thank you for having this article in the Quarterly.
Keith Neal
Astoria
The Way We Weren't
The way you were not all of us were [“The Way We Were,” Old Oregon, Winter 2009]. As curriculum director for McClymonds High School and eight feeder schools in Oakland, California, during the seventies, I worked with Sandy Seale, wife of Bobbie Seale, and had several meetings with Bobbie Seale of the Black Panther Party. As Sandy and Bobbie told me one night, “That’s the way you white guys act, come down here and stand for nothing. It’s your responsibility to stand for what will make our children successful and it’s not the f**k word.” Sandy was the department head of the English program and one of the founders of the California Writing Project.
Leslie G. Wolfe ’58, M.Ed. ’61
Aurora
More Klonoski
I was a student of Mr. Klonoski’s [“Jim Klonoski: Deep Questions and Gored Oxes,” Autumn 2009, by Rita Radostitz] on several occasions—only because he taught the bulk of the classes in my chosen subject area. He was a partisan and he would readily admit that. Anybody who holds an opinion to the contrary is deluding themselves (this means Radostitz). Klonoski liked putting the pressure on students—some would bend and some would break. I did not like him for his partisan politics or actions in the classroom, but I found it to be true of him, like the fictional Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, “the more you hate me, the more you will learn.” To quote Klonoski, running his right hand through his white, thinning hair, his right foot up on a front row desk, he punctuated the air with, “Are you with me?”
Stuart Pennington ’90
Blaine, Washington
