looking for redemption – my thoughts on the protest at the UNC Goode speech.

i typically don’t do politics on my blog.  this was an exception.  it was one where i had great concern that free speech for more conservative viewpoints were being squelched.  i took my camera to see for myself.  the guy you see in the video got to shout a prepared speech through a bullhorn at the “pit” – the place where free speech always happens at UNC.  the speaker, congressman goode, gave a speech without any yelling or name calling and was attempted to be shut down.  two fire alarms, 6 arrests and a lot of shouting at the beginning of the speech makes it pretty hard to exercise your free speech.  what i saw was a radical suppression of free speech and that concerned me.  michelle malkin picked up my video via twitter (http://twitter.com/mike_little), but i wanted to make sure people knew i was hoping to find something much different.

i was sent a tweet from a twitter buddy of mine at UNC about a protest gone wild at UNC last week. the pictures and video i saw amazed me. there was spin on both sides, so i wanted to see for myself this week. i loaded up my flip video camera (great gadget) and my iphone to get a first hand look at this protest.

***the protest was on the issue of immigration. the speakers were former congressmen that supported various ways of stopping illegal immigration. the protesters were a large and diverse group of people that were in favor of keeping the boarders open and granting amnesty to all that were here.

quite frankly, i didn’t care about the issue in this instance. what i cared about was whether or not free speech was being suppressed in the name of free speech.

i saw video of the speaker from last week being wrapped in a giant banner, people yelling so no one could hear, damage to property, etc. the police had to pull out pepper spray to get the protesters under control so it wouldn’t escalate.

i know how things can be “spun”, so i went with an open mind.

first, i couldn’t find the place. i thought it was at garner hall and it was in fact at the student union. the student union is right beside “the pit”, which is a sunken area where anyone can speak. what i found (at first) was what appeared to be real dialogue. there were some, lets say, interesting characters to say the least, but it appeared to be productive. different viewpoints were being communicated. most that i heard were about the protest from the week prior and how it shouldn’t have happened that way. then, a guy got up and gave what can only be described as a hate filled rant he read off his blackberry. he shouted through a bullhorn words like

bigot, racist, white supremacist, etc. He said, “we (those who felt as he did) must to anything in our power to shut down this kind of speech.” he also said that the university should apologize for allowing someone to come on to their campus who spews such hate.

what? oh, and he wanted amnesty (interesting use of the word) for any student involved in the violence last week. see video here

i can assure you that the only hate spewed was from those who disagreed with the speaker. i was given a chance to speak and seemed to get good response from both sides. i tried to make clear that freedom of speech is freedom TO speak. freedom of speech is the freedom to BE heard. the freedom to protest and exercise their first amendment rights were not being afforded to others. as a matter of fact, they were used to intimidate and suppress another viewpoint. and this was a viewpoint that people died to secure and protect.  (see this video of a latino marine who was supportive of the speech.)

i told them i found out about this through twitter (dad, do you get it yet?) i let them know i was an alum. and i also let them know that they needed to catch a clue on how to have civil discourse. all they did last week was give ammunition to the very people that they were protesting.

oh, and i made clear that i’d say the same thing if a group of people were preventing them from speaking (which with this guy i really wanted to do). after i spoke i headed in for the rest of the speech. lots of cops, guards, etc. there was good interaction (other than the french filibuster) and the speaker (goode) was gracious in everything he said. he didn’t yell. he didn’t scream. he didn’t try to wrap the protesters in big banners. it was a peace communication of ideas. that is what a university is supposed to be about, right? the best of the night was a latino marine who was a legal immigrant that supported the need to have a form of legal immigration. there was no jeering him.

then i came outside and started putting the puzzle together. i didn’t connect the fire trucks and the two fire alarms that were thrown until after the event. i should have clued in from the two fire trucks parked in the building next to the union.  (from in the auditorium, it sounded like police cars were coming.) it was through a tweet that i found out there were six students arrested for attempts to disrupt the speech. i missed the first 15 minutes of action by engaging those outside, so i missed a lot of the shouts and jeers.

unc wised up and had a lot of police there or it would have gotten out of hand again. thank God for twitter…a lot of this information wouldn’t get out otherwise.

***i’m not an al franken fan, unless he is on SNL.  i’m of the opinion that if al franken can get elected to the senate then anyone can get elected to the senate. let’s throw in bill murray, adam sandler, tina fey and barbara streisand as well. however, if they received the same treatment i would be just as shocked and outraged.***

freedom of speech is of utmost importance in our society. suppression of it by use of intimidation or violent/disorderly conduct isn’t what our country is about. tienanmen square comes to mind. students protest, the government crushes their view point. now, the pit at unc was no Tienanmen square, but if we as a nation take this road it could very well lead to a nation where ideas are respected just about as much. i’m glad i went. i’m sad about what i saw.

as an alum, i pray that they were duke students instead. (that was a joke to my duke friends) send a letter to chancellor@unc.edu if you feel the same way. oh…and listen to the guy on the video. would you like that form of government? may it never be so.

also… these few are not representatives of MY university, the university of the people.