NEWS FLASH: SABE, Students Afraid of Being Educated, Act Decisively at UNC

Recently, a U. S. Congressman, Tom Tancredo (R-Colorado), was invited to speak to the students of UNC Chapel Hill about immigration policy. His talk was disrupted and ultimately cancelled because of the violence of some student protesters and one faculty member (who was apparently caught up in nostalgia for his own youthful escapades). UPI reported the story here.

Both the Chancellor and the UNC System President apologized to Rep. Tancredo for the disruption, but to date I have seen no penalties, punishments or consequences of any kind leveled against the students and the faculty member involved in this prima facie illegal activity, nor to my knowledge any official explanation of the administration's dereliction in this matter.

Some things never change. Such student demonstrations as this started more than 40 years ago, and it seems our educational establishment has as little idea how to respond to these antics as did the adults in charge of the Universities back in the 60’s.

However, common sense is all that’s needed in these matters, a common sense articulated clearly and directly by Al Capp in 1969 in an appearance on William F. Buckley’s acclaimed Firing Line TV show (as recounted in On the Firing Line). He was commenting on the then recent attempt by Defense Secretary Robert McNamara to speak at Harvard. As the Secretary began, members of Students for a Democratic Society [aka SDS, a predecessor organization of SABE] stormed the hall shouting obscenities and forcing him to leave. They then blocked his car, hitting it and Secretary McNamara with the poles of their placards. In the face of all of this detestable behavior, Dean Monroe of Harvard announced that he would not punish the students because he “saw no reason for punishing students for what was purely political activity.”

Al Capp’s response? “Now, if depriving a man of his freedom of speech, depriving him of his freedom to move, very nearly depriving him of his life--if that’s a political activity, then rape is a social event, and sticking up a gas station is a financial transaction.” When asked why Dean Monroe had made such an erroneous decision, Al Capp responded, “Because he’s a fathead.”

These students and one faculty member of the University of North Carolina committed or conspired to commit acts of vandalism and threats of violence against the property of the UNC system and the person of Tom Tancredo. There are laws against such behavior, laws that would be swiftly invoked in any other civil context. There are also numerous laws, school rules and regulations protecting the fundamental free speech rights of Tom Tancredo and the student organization that invited him, and these were intentionally violated by the perpetrators as well.

In other words, this is a no-brainer: the University should act swiftly to punish these students and the faculty member for their jack-booted hooliganism, and make it clear that no such behavior shall be tolerated in any way in the future.

However, if the University does not act, as it appears it won't, the least they can do is to voice a rationale for their timidity, however vapid it may be. After all, even the fatheads of yesteryear could do that.