Posted on 02/25/2003 9:57:48 PM PST by Dan from Michigan
Controversial talk interrupted
By MELISSA SANCHEZ
The State News
A speech titled "The Irrationality of Anti-Americanism" sponsored by the MSU College Republicans was presented Tuesday night, despite efforts by a Wilson Hall assistant director to stop it.
"They advertised a very different type of presentation," said Erin Belinger, a student affairs graduate student. The College Republicans gave Wilson Hall's student government the impression speaker Dan Flynn would address patriotism in a nonpartisan manner, she said.
But after Belinger saw a flier Tuesday advertising the presentation as "Why the Left Hates America," she argued the College Republicans were presenting something different than what they had told the student government. Hall governments must approve planned events in residence halls before they can take place. Flynn's book, "Why the Left Hates America: Exposing the Lies That Have Obscured Our Nation's Greatness," was published in 2002.
Belinger told the speaker and members of the audience the event could not continue and she would bring in security or police if they did not leave. Police never arrived at the event.
Flynn spoke anyway to a crowd of about 80 people. He called Belinger a "lefty" and said she tried to shut him down because she did not agree with his views.
"A tax-funded institution does not have the right to supersede the First Amendment of the Constitution," he said. "Tolerance does not mean tolerating only the people you agree with."
But Steve Lacy, director of MSU's Journalism School, said the First Amendment doesn't always guarantee citizens the right to say whatever they want wherever they want.
"First Amendment rights are not the same thing as being polite or being nice or not being impolite," he said. "There is no absolute right in the First Amendment to say anything you want anywhere you want."
Belinger said the event would be shut down because the College Republicans misled Wilson Hall student government about the topic of the speech.
"It's not about what he's saying or not saying," she said. Belinger refused to look at the speech notes to see whether the presentation dealt with patriotism.
Allen Mueller, Wilson Hall's Student Government president, said he instructed College Republicans to continue with the event earlier in the evening because he had not heard it was supposed to be canceled yet.
The hall mentor who was supposed to be monitoring the event didn't show up, Mueller added.
"I assume Residence Life will discuss the actions of the group, determine whether to take a step," he said, adding the College Republicans could have its official student group title revoked if ASMSU found rules were violated. ASMSU is MSU's undergraduate student government.
Matt Thome, spokesman for the College Republicans, said the attempt to shut down the presentation was censorship.
"We had Wilson's student government's approval of it, and (Belinger) went over their heads," he said. "It's obvious censorship."
Flynn, in his 30-minute speech, talked about left-wing college professors, how anti-Americanism is accepted and how tolerance of both sides of the spectrum doesn't exist - especially at college campuses where conservative speakers are shut down.
I went to the auditorium, and missed most of the arguement. From what I've heard, Belinger was going to get security to kick us all out.(there was a last minute backup plan).
During the speech, we were all waiting for security to come. I would have loved to see that happen. One thing is obvious though. Lefties could care less about tolerance or REAL diversity. They hate the first amendment as much as the 2nd amendment.
???
Dan, could you please explain what Wilson Hall is for the enlightenment of those of us who are not familiar with MSU?
The First Amendment as parsed by the publicly funded director of MSU's School of Journalism. Nice.
"The Irrationality of Anti-Americanism"
Well, all the way down the lake, I endured, at first, her lecture about my political incorrectness ... and then, I must say, I also endured my rather forceful, though calm, directive to her, that she did not have a clue about what she was talking, for her to have made several irrational leaps by which she deigned to engineer a charge against me.
She tried to perpetrate a fraud and use some of her "authority" as an official "above" a student body, to bring force to bear with her invention.
I'm tellin' ya; those people who have infiltrated the many government positions in our country and they are leftists, are fascist socialists, it does not matter much, anymore, what other labels they may wear to mislead the public into seeing them as being "diverse."
They are not "diverse;" and they never have been diverse.
Instead, they are the same, directionless people who have "special" problems of need, about which they intend to use government to force other people to fulfill.
The best example of their agenda, is in regard to their lust for a goverment by judciary; for they quite simply, in contrast to the many propagandistic sound bites, want to enter a courtroom and instead of seeing Clarence Thomas on the bench ... they are almost desparate to find their own mother.
That's right; the very same mother whose judgment they manipulated, whose judgment they ignored, yet on the occasions of their violating the law, the mom whose judgment went against the law, and she said, again in immortal words,"My child would never do such a thing; he's / she's such a nice young boy / girl."
I think le fists is most appropriate ;-)
From the article, it seems that this Erin Belinger doesn't even merit low-level bureaucrat status.
It looks more like she's simply a pinhead graduate student they stuck with the responsibility of coordinating student activities, making sure there aren't conflicting schedules among different groups wanting to use the facilities. But every pompous little witch has an axe to grind, I suppose.
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