Current Events — HabitableZone

Current Events » in reply to re: Free speech on the campus

The Scarecrow
Robert — (archived)

The archetypical straw man, ya know. I'm not buying your attempt to confuse private property rights with freedom of speech.

A public institution gave one group the use of its grounds as a canvas on which to create a political message. Freedom of speech absolutely requires that opposing groups be given access to the same canvas. Anything less is infringement on the free speech rights of the opposition--the anti-choice protesters chose that site and their method of expression for maximum dramatic impact, and so their opponents have the same right to make a dramatic and impactful statement, using the same public facilities.

Or are you referring to the crosses themselves, rather than the land? As far as I know, in that case, the anti-choice protesters were guilty of littering, and their opponents performed the public service of cleaning up the land they trashed. Property deliberately left in a public place is abandoned.

BTW, I don't think I"m showing disrespect for the religious symbol of the cross by talking about it in this context as litter, because in this context the anti-choice protesters are treating it disrespectfully by using it as a prop in a political message. They're the ones treating it as litter, not those who pick up the mess. That kind of abuse strips the symbol of its religious meaning and transforms it into nothing more meaningful than political rhetoric. The protestors no doubt wanted their political message misunderstood as a religious message, but crassly waving around religious symbols isn't sufficient to blur the nature of their message nor give it any special protection against rebuttal.

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