New York City police commissioner, Raymond Kelly, is considered to be such a moral reprobate that he was literally booed off the stage at Brown University today, prompting a stern letter from university president Christina H. Paxson. Her point is the usual one. Universities are places for debate where all sides get a fair hearing, and booing Kelly off the stage not only denied him the right to speak, but also his detractors the right to confront him.
This is always an interesting conversation, including especially when Israel is involved. But there has to be a point of evil beyond which it is simply unacceptable to give someone a forum. And who gets to decide that? Do the students of Brown University get to decide that? Can a few loud protestors decide it, or should it be decided by a vote of the entire student body?
If someone thinks racial and sectarian profiling are gross violations of the law, the Constitution, and any decent moral code, why can’t they treat Raymond Kelly the same way they’d treat Orval Faubus?
In my opinion, it should always be in order for a member of the student body to ask for a vote if they think someone has been given a forum at their university who should more properly be facing a tribunal in the Hague. Maybe you think Ray Kelly doesn’t deserve to be treated so harshly, but what about Donald Rumsfeld or Dick Cheney or George W. Bush?
Some ideas deserve to be debated, and others should be confronted with baseball bats.
