Kimberly Haas writing for the NH Union Leader reported yesterday that UNH wouldn’t take action against counter-protestors or professors calling for their expulsion. The gist of it is this. UNH students protested the election of Donald Trump. Two “counter-protesters” showed up, one in a Richard Nixon mask, the other in a gorilla suit (assumed to represent Harambe). Whiny feminazi UNH professors demanded the counter-protesters be identified and expelled.
Several professors, including Robin Hackett, an associate professor of English and member of the women’s studies program, called for an investigation leading to the expulsion of the two.
Siobhan Senier, who is an English professor and women’s studies program faculty member, drafted a letter to UNH President Mark Huddleston and Provost Nancy Targett.
English lecturer Molly Campbell claimed the person dressed as Nixon was throwing pacifiers at the crowd.
Lawrence Beemer, another English lecturer, was appalled by the apparent meaning behind the costumes, saying the students intended to represent an offensive internet meme. (UL) …
I wonder if any of these credentialed snowflakes has any objection to Hillary supporters issuing death threats, attacking passersby, destroying property, or any other riot protest related side-effects elsewhere across the country?
Is that free speech? Protected expression? Is anyone appalled?
(A Nixon Mask, and pacifiers–THE HORROR!!!)
Are any of these UNH educators or their peers of a mind with Melissa Click or Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, both of whom advocate violence? Click called for violence to suppress speech. Rawlings-Blake ordered police to let rioters destroy private property as a form of protected speech. In both cases, the goal was to promote the one-sided “dialogue.” Approved progressive “speech” gets protection. Anything that might counter or contradict it is opposed.
To his credit, UNH Pres. Mark Huddleston continues to defend the idea of free expression by all sides, something he’s gone out of his way to address since the Bias-free Language Guide debacle back in 2015. But he has no plan to investigate or reprimand anyone, and I think that is a mistake. Professors calling for the expulsion of students over something as harmless as a Nixon mask and a gorilla costume pose a very real long-term threat to the first amendment rights of students, faculty, and even the general public that subsidizes the University system.
As such, I think they ought to be suspended without pay or better yet, fired.
Hackett and Senier are women’s studies teachers. They are supposed to be champions of equality and diversity. But these card-carrying progressives are using that as cover for their intolerance. To them, “expression” is not a liberty through which diverse opinions are shared, it is a tunnel guarded by liberal watchdogs who decide what things mean, which words or actions are safe to use, in what context, and by whom.
And Senier’s letter is not just a demand for immediate action; it is a warning meant to put students on notice. An intimidation tactic that sets a perimeter around the UNH plantation.
If Mark Huddleston is serious about protecting free speech at UNH, failing to make an example of anyone who is so obviously an enemy of it will only lead to more problems in the future.
