Editor,
I wish to express my condolences to the lower division undergraduates of this august institution. If some are correct, your poor darlings can be lead astray with a few words in an off-the-cuff remark. These folks seem to believe that you are so brain-dead, so soul-dead, that the first 18 years of life with your parents can be negated in one class by an evil, wicked professor. They probably also believe that you are all non-smoking, non-drinking virgins.
I first started college as a non-smoking, non-drinking virgin. And my parents too were concerned with the media's coverage of the damn-fool politicians back then, madly squawking as they did about the traitors and communists teaching in our nation's colleges.
Now I'm pushing 50 and I'm a conservative Republican. Well, at least I was a Republican. I'm having some doubts about that. First, the big kids wanted John Dendahl to resign for saying he had doubts about the wisdom of the "War on Drugs" (imagine that), and now some local Republicans are gunning for a faculty member here at UNM for saying something they didn't like.
Our resident College Republicans have tossed their hat into the latter fray, sending a wonderful message to those of you considering joining their ranks: "Our party believes in Freedom of Speech! That is, of course, as long as we don't find it offensive." But I digress, suffice it to say that Groucho Marx was right.
Let's get back to the basics here. We didn't like what the man said - I didn't. Not as an American, and not as a veteran. He was probably indulging in black humor, but even at that, it was extreme. So what? I don't like hearing about 85 percent of what the average politician has to say. I find some of it downright offensive - as an American and as a veteran. Pity I can't demand their resignations on that basis!
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The crux of the question here is the true meaning of "Academic Freedom." That concept does not involve the attributes of comfortable, antiseptic, risk free play. It does involve the necessary development of independent, critical, creative thought. Just as muscles require exercise to develop, so too does the mind.
If these folks are right, and you poor darlings are all ripe for quick corruption, should we then hold fast to the Dogma?
The Dogma pronounces the Earth to be the center of the universe - and thou shall not question the Dogma!
Or should we, perhaps, follow the advice of Francis Bacon: "For the world is not to be narrowed till it will go into the understanding (which has been done hitherto), but the understanding is to be expanded and opened till it can take in the image of the world."
This is a university; it is not a kindergarten and it is not a boot camp. The critical and intrinsic value of academic freedom must always take priority here.
John Bauer
UNM staff
