Essay 1

Adlai E. Stevenson once said, “The first principle of a free society is an untrammeled flow of words in an open forum.” Although the United States still denounces the Chinese government reaction to the Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989 in China when more than one hundred thousand students tried to exercise their freedom of speech that every human being deserves and were stopped by authorities, America is already gradually leaning towards the speech-controlling lane. As devastating as it is, political correctness and established university speech codes have invaded individual’s personal freedom and raised questions among the public, the press, and the students about the right to free speech, the twisted tolerance, and the slowly extinct open discussion in college classrooms.
In Human Events, it reports, “Few years ago, two editors of the Harvard Business School student newspaper were reprimanded for publishing a cartoon in which they used the term “morons” to criticize the school’s computer system.” That certainly is just one of the hundreds of thousands of incidents that have occurred in universities all over the nation. They claimed it was for the protection of the ones that might feel offended and verbally violated. However, they are just examples of how the right Americans used to be proud of, used to hold against other undemocratic countries, and used to make this country the greatest, is slowly fading away. Where is the end of this? Is it when free speech is taken away from each and every individual? Where is the tolerance Americans fought for? While political correctness has gone beyond the original purpose of prohibiting racial slangs and hate speech, it has become the devil’s grip on campuses all around the country.
The First Amendment stated, “Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech…” Over the years, freedom of speech has always been one of the things Americans have taken pride in, but unfortunately this right has been challenged since the time when it was granted to all of the citizens.
In our country, universities and colleges are the factory for producing the most intelligent individuals for the future society by allowing students ask all sorts of question, but today, it is “the university is where speech is more strictly regulated by what was once free-speech generation” (Garry “Censorship by the free-speech generation”). The strongest piece of evidence is the twisted speech codes in colleges across the nation. Speech codes were meant to be “asking students and employees to accept personal responsibilities for their speech and actions” (Gilroy “Colleges Grappling with Incivility”), but turns out to be “an increasingly restrictive attitude toward free expression on campuses” (Garry “Censorship by the free-speech generation”). One of the most recent and most famous incidents regarding freedom of speech is the University of Florida Taser Incident. It took place in Senator John Kerry’s Constitution Day Forum, which was organized by an agency of the student government. The heat was set off when a third-year journalist from the college newspaper, Andrew Meyer, asked if Senator Kerry supported the possible impeachment of former President George W. Bush, and whether Kerry was a member of secret society Skull and Bones or not. While Meyer was listing why President Bush should be impeached and one of the reasons was former President Bill Clinton was so as investigations led to the fact that he received oral sex from a White House intern, Monica Lewinsky, his microphone was cut off. However, that did not stop Andrew Meyer from exercising his freedom of speech, as he continued asking whether Senator Kerry engaged in Skull and Bones membership. Before Kerry could answer Andrew Meyer’s questions, police officers began to seize him and tase him as he was struggling to break through the police’s force.
The criticism of this incident is not about a college student could not think of a better word to replace “oral sex” in an open forum when a highly-respected political figure was standing on the stage, whether or not Andrew Meyer was too straightforward, or if he picked the wrong questions to ask. When the college journalist innocently brought up a topic that is comfortable in a slight way, he was seized by force. What if he was just asking Senator John Kerry what his goals would be if he became the President? What if he was not asking about the secret society Skull and Bones? Obviously, the situation would have been completely different, and a scene would not be made in front of a presidential candidate and the rest of the world. On the other hand, this incident raised a very considerable question at the same time – what kind of message is the university sending to their students and students all over the country? It is true that there is always a bottom line in freedom of speech, such as falsely accusing a person, giving hate speech, making racial comments, and so on. Nevertheless, Andrew Meyer did not step across the line as all he wanted to do is to prove to other students that they could ask hard questions. As far as what the news reported and videos regarding this incident that have been posted on the internet, Meyer’s questions were clearly legitimate and his right to free speech was undoubtedly denied by the student government or University of Florida. Meanwhile, the unspoken speech code is once again a debatable topic in American higher education setting and making university faculty raise their eyebrows. Donald Kagan, a dean at Yale University, paralleled the current situation with modern history, “there is an imposed conformity of less freedom now than there was during the days of Joseph McCarthy.” (Garry “Censorship by the free-speech generation”). While the purpose of speech codes was originally admirable, it has been twisted and changed the college atmosphere just to suit everyone’s taste. Therefore, the shameful change should act as an alert to every faculty and student and to remind them the fact that it actually takes away their right and tape the mouths of the ones who want to ask intellectual-challenging and controversial questions.
One of the most vital ingredients of making future leaders of America is letting them engage in open discussions and debates, so that they can be better-rounded, respectful, and have deeper understanding of their and others’ political views and values. William Orville Douglas once said, “The most important aspect of freedom of speech is freedom to learn. All education is a continuous dialogue – questions and answers that pursue every problem in the horizon. That is the essence of academic freedom.” Since political correctness has become the guideline of how every college faculty and student should talk, hundreds of universities have adopted different speech codes. According to Censorship by free-speech generation, University of Michigan enacted a code that punishes any speech that stigmatizes or victimizes an individual on the basis of any one of the 12 criteria. Speech codes were originated in the 1960s during the Civil Rights Movement, in order to protect minority from being verbally attacked and hurting their self-esteem. Forty years passed by, and it has transformed and “inhibits any real action on the underlying social problem” (Garry “Censorship by the free-speech generation”). In my opinion, if views cannot be expressed and discussed, people from different groups will never seek a common ground and true harmony will never arrive. In fact, Patrick Garry compared the current speech codes with weed in the lawn in Censorship by the free-speech generation. He said, “It is easier and temporarily gratifying to cut it down but unless the roots are pulled out, the weed still lives and grows.” Nowadays, political correctness has gone so far off track that it basically orders universities to regulate and monitor speeches, and in turn, it hinders faculty and students to investigate social problems, government problems, and political problems.
Tolerance is defined as a fair and objective attitude toward those whose opinions, practices, and race, that is different from your own. In 2009, the tolerance is an academic setting is slowly disappearing due to the rising political correctness movement in the society. Amity Shales, editorial writer for the Wall Street Journal, described the scary side of political correctness as “a sense of airlessness…that is the opposite of the tolerant…”(Giobbe “Political Correctness”), while Juan Gonzales from Los Angeles Times gave tolerance a new definition as “a label foisted on dissident voices by those who want to maintain the mainstream view in the media and education” (Giobbe “Political Correctness”). Speaking from personal experience, I have sit in lectures which professors had a different set of political and social views from mine, but I always stayed until they were over to be respectful. Nevertheless, I seem to notice the kind of tolerance everyone needs to have is being neglected. On one occasion, my American History professor identified himself as a Christian when we were opening a topic about religions in the United States, one of the classmates immediately walked out of the classroom. I wondered there the tolerance for each other was, and what so offensive about my professor’s comment. Today, the mainstream view in education is respecting diversity, not ignoring others’ preferences. However, it is disgraceful to see students not being able to achieve that goal and turning their back on true tolerance.