Thursday, November 12, 2009

Radical, amoral chic

Bet you couldn't get a conservative speaker through the door.
Professors for terror

Why are American universities so infatuated with terrorists who want to destroy America?

The University of Massachusetts -- citing its supposed commitment to "academic freedom" -- will play host today to Raymond Luc Levasseur, who served 18 years in federal prison for heading a group that bombed 20 buildings, robbed banks and killed a cop as a "protest" against US foreign policy.
His targets, back in the '70s and '80s, included the Navy Reserve Center in Queens, the Army Reserve Center in Uniondale and the Navy Recruiting District Office in East Meadow.
And his victims included Philip Lomonaco -- a New Jersey state trooper killed by the self-proclaimed United Freedom Front, which Levasseur headed, in 1981.
When the UMass academic library invited Levasseur to be part of its annual Colloquium on Social Change, police groups were outraged. So was Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, who demanded that the invitation be withdrawn.
And it was -- only to be reissued 24 hours later when the university, in collaboration with the ACLU, insisted that its commitment to "the principles of free speech" required reinstatement.
To be sure, the university went to great lengths to note that this was not an official invitation from the school, which "questions the wisdom and common sense" of having Levasseur speak.
But it's not going to intervene. What's the point in having administrators?
UMass, by the way, is a state school that depends on taxpayer dollars.
If Gov. Patrick is truly as outraged as he says he is, then he and his Legislature should be looking to do some judicious campus budget-cutting.

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