Is this what the future holds for American Colleges and Universities?
Dartmouth College is an Ivy League school supposedly requiring high academic standards for its students to enroll, but when a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, Corky Messner, was scheduled to speak on campus earlier this month, Democrat students at Dartmouth demanded that he cancel his appearance there.
Whatever happened to the First Amendment? Whatever happened to Freedom of Speech? Messner is a decorated military veteran who has certainly earned the right and privilege to express his viewpoints in any public venue in this country — AT LEAST more so than any teenage or 20-something college student does.
And if the students at Dartmouth are supposedly so “academically brilliant”, why can’t they go and confront Messner on the actual issues facing our country, one-on-one, in an open public forum?
Let Mr. Messner say his piece, and let the results fall where they may. If you’re afraid that a Republican candidate just might sway some hearts and minds to his way of thinking, then why not propose something better that’s more proven and more effective?
If Mr. Messner being blatantly censored from his recently scheduled public speaking appearance at Dartmouth College is a sign of things to come for our country, then I’d really hate to see what America’s going to look like 25-30 years from now in this regard.
This is what Messner posted on his Facebook campaign page on February 18 after he was informed he was not allowed to speak on the Dartmouth College campus:
Corky Messner for Senate
February 18 at 7:05 PM ·
Dartmouth College Republicans were forced to cancel my appearance due to the militant stance of the Dartmouth College Democrats. The Democrats’ threats posed a security threat, in a direct attack on our First Amendment rights. Ironically, freedom of speech is demonized at an institution of higher learning. Help me set the record straight, and defend free speech on our campuses >>
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https://www.theblaze.com/news/threats-of-left-wing-violence-lead-dartmouth-college-republicans-to-cancel-talk-on-opioid-crisis-and-need-for-border-security
Threats of left-wing violence lead Dartmouth College Republicans to cancel talk on opioid crisis and need for border security
‘Large contingent of radical leftists on campus … descended on events in the past … to shut down speech they don’t agree with’
By Dave Urbanski
February 19, 2020
Citing concerns over left-wing threats of violence, the Dartmouth College Republicans indefinitely postponed a policy talk on the need for border security and New Hampshire’s opioid crisis, NHJournal reported.
What are the details?
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Corky Messner was slated to speak Tuesday on “Building a Wall Against Drugs: The Need for Border Security to End the Opioid Crisis,” the outlet said.
“The security risk has outpaced our capacity to handle the potential protests. Given the reaction and the subject matter, and the threats against our members, we’re facing a security problem bigger than we can handle,” Daniel Bring, chairman of the Dartmouth College Republicans, told NHJournal. “There’s a large contingent of radical leftists on campus who have descended on events in the past in order to shut down speech they don’t agree with. They pound on doors, rush the podium and harass the speakers. The backlash has been so great, we’re not prepared to say we will have the necessary security.”
Bring added to the outlet that group members have received specific threats and alerted campus security and Hanover police: “It’s not just a single comment here or there; it’s the wider situation and the threat of radical, intense protests.”
Griffin Mackey, secretary of Dartmouth College Republicans, told NHJournal that members heard threats directed toward the group as well as Messner.
“We don’t know if they were serious or not, but our first priority has to be an event that’s safe and where people who want to hear our speaker feel welcome,” Mackey said.
Mackey added to the outlet that he was concerned about tactics College Democrats have used in the past, noting that when conservative author David Horowitz spoke in 2018, College Democrats showed up with laptops, sat in the crowd, logged on to porn sites, and cranked up the volume. “I’m not kidding,” he said.
What did Messner have to say?
Messner told NHJournal that he’s frequently “encountered situations where the healthy exchange of ideas is discouraged by those who apparently feel threatened by even the existence of opposing viewpoints” and that “the situation at Dartmouth College is the most egregious example I’ve encountered of this intellectual intolerance. Thanks to the efforts of those agitators who disagree with the planned event topic — the mere topic itself, mind you — we are denied the right to assemble, the right to listen to others’ viewpoints — to even express ourselves. Ironically, freedom of speech is demonized at an institution of higher learning, where expression and exploration of ideas should be exalted, not stamped out.”
No sympathy from College Democrats
“When the College Republicans encounter pushback for hosting racist events, they cry censorship,” Katie Smith, communications director for Dartmouth College Democrats, added to the outlet. “It is not censorship to call out racism when you see it. We encourage everyone to use their right to free speech to voice their opinion on the matter.”
In addition, NHJournal said College Democrats issued a statement denouncing the “xenophobia and racism” of the talk, saying they “unequivocally condemn this illegitimate excuse for a ‘policy talk.’ We won’t stand for the racism and anti-immigrant policies propagated by Corky Messner and endorsed by the Dartmouth College Republicans.”
What did other opponents of the talk have to say?
“The College Republicans can — and I cannot stress this enough — f*** off,” a class of 2023 member tweeted, the outlet said.
“I say Dartmouth Twitter should band together and jump the College Republicans for that email/event. I’m sure none of them can fight,” another commenter tweeted, adding an invitation to a progressive counter-event, NHJournal said.
Anything else?
The New Hampshire Federation of College Republicans issued a statement calling the threats “an insult to the First Amendment,” the outlet said.
“The right to freedom of speech and thought is a unique value in our society that is increasingly under attack from the far left, especially on our college campuses,” the statement continued, according the NHJournal. “This type of behavior should not be tolerated by Dartmouth College or its administration — it’s time for colleges and universities to stand up and denounce this type of egregious behavior by their extreme left students.”
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