The Otter College Republicans at my University, California State University Monterey Bay, called for the firing of five professors who signed a petition in support of Bill Ayers right to express his views without political or professional repression. I am one of those professors. The petition that they refer to does not claim the signees support Ayers' criminal actions of the past, but that they support his right to not be professionally retaliated against for expressing his ideas. The left is often attacked for asking people to use “politically correct speech” (which usually means asking people not to use terms that refer to others in a derogatory manner). Talk about insisting on politically correct speech! These Republicans want to fire people for expressing ideas that do not agree with theirs! While they claim we are being attacked for supporting Bill Ayer’s ideas, which would be bad enough, we are actually being attacked for the very act of supporting freedom of speech and academic freedom! Likely they never read the petition. If they did, then they are purposefully distorting the truth. If not, then they are just irresponsible.

I want to respond to show how this mostly demonstrates the lack of respect these individuals have for the basic premise of out country’s ideals. These Republican are free, and should be free, to express their views. However, what they are attempting to do is censor dissent—in other words punish professors who disagree with their viewpoint through loss of employment. Unless one has done something illegal or unprofessional, professors have been given the right to express their views without retaliation. This is known as academic freedom. There is nothing in the petition that is illegal on unprofessional. In fact, signing the petition is an act of our professional support for the principals of our profession.

These individuals are perpetuating the very behavior that the petition was naming as inappropriate—attempting to censor individuals for their free expression of ideas. Bill Ayers was being attacked for expressing his explanation of his actions of more than 30 years ago, actions for which he paid the criminal penalties. He has attempted to explain to people the reasons why at the time he believed those actions were necessary, although illegal. Our country was founded on the idea that we should be free to express our ideas without fear of government repression. These young Republicans obviously do not believe in that principal, as they believe he should not be allowed to express those views, and we should not be allowed to express our support of his right to express those views.

Rather than address the ideas that the petition raised, and present a counter argument to them, these Republicans call for State repression of the people who expressed those ideas through loss of employment. Anyone who is familiar with the history of the McCarthy era—one of the major blights on our countries history—should be familiar this scenario. At that time, anyone who had ever called themselves a communist was in danger of losing their job and being blacklisted from attaining one. But not only were they censored, but anyone who associated with someone who called themselves a communist could be, and often were, subjected to those same repressions. This is exactly that same tactic. This petition of these college Republicans is calling for the suppression of political dissent, the very reason we have the First Amendment. In fact what we are being attacked for is defending the First Amendment! To this group, I would assume, the actions of the McCarthy era were appropriate to make sure that only the correct political view points were allowed, as dissenting views could be seen as dangerous.

Not only do they not understand the First Amendment (or not believe in it), they misrepresent Bill Ayers’ actions and ideas. Bill Ayers never engaged in terrorist acts. He may have engaged in violent activity, but not all violent action is terrorism. Terrorism is when you attack the general population to scare the people or government into surrendering or capitulating, rather than through either the democratic tactic of persuasion, or the military tactic of defeating of the enemy’s army or government. The idea of terrorism is to use fear as your main weapon. Contrary to the assertions of this group of college Republicans, the actions of the organization to which Bill Ayers was a member was not an attempt to terrorize or make anyone fearful. They did engage in violence against physical targets, symbols of the military aspects of our government, because they believed that such extreme measure were necessary to bring attention to the injustices being carried out in Vietnam by our government. While I do not condone such actions, I do not equate them with terrorism.

Whether or not you abhor Bill Ayers or agree with him, if you believe in the principals of this country, and civil discourse to resolve differences, you should find the call to fire professors for their expression of beliefs, or their support of the First Amendment and academic freedom to be abhorrent. The right to hold unpopular opinions is the core of the First Amendment, as popular opinions have no need of protection! While I defend the right of these Republicans to express their ideas, I also find their ideas to be in contradiction to the values and laws of the country they claim to be supporting.

My hope is that such expressions by these folks just come from the misguided zeal of young idealists, and that others will realize the absurdity of their position.

© 2009 nmeier @ csumb.edu