Letters to the editor: Students need to grow up
February 16, 2016
The recent article about De Anza students calling for “hate speech” restrictions is just another in a troubling series of events, starting with Missouri students and faculty trying to prevent journalists from covering their events to Yale students signing a petition to abolish the First Amendment (the irony there is magical).
The impetus behind all these attacks on free speech is students’ belief that they should be immune from any message that might offend them. During the discussion with the Foothill-De Anza board, Chancellor Judy Miner gave the mild version of why such restrictions are not allowed, seemingly more important about the money it could cost the district rather than the principle involved. I will be more blunt. You do not have the right to not be offended. You do not have the right to silence someone you don’t like simply because the message they are putting out makes you unhappy. The concepts of freedom and liberty are infinitely more important than your sensibilities.
More importantly, if you can claim the right to silence someone simply because their message offends you, then someone else can claim that same right and silence you because your message offends them. You as students, or simply as people, do not have the absolute right to determine what is proper speech and what is not. College is supposed to be a time and place where your viewpoints are challenged by competing viewpoints, and through reasoned analysis and debate, we learn what might be the best from each side. If one side secures the right to silence a different point of view, then we all suffer, as flaws in our own argument are never evaluated, or inherent superiority of other positions are never examined.
It is time for college students to grow up. Free speech is too important a concept to sacrifice to keep you comfortable.
