To Conservative College Graduates

I wish I could have heard the commencement address at the W&L Law School Graduation this year. According to The News-Gazette, David B Wilkins, a Professor of Law from Harvard, told students that the increasing polarization in society could only be solved by a willingness to reach across divisions to build bonds of community and trust with others. He went on to argue, according to the same article, that lawyers have a special responsibility to engage in this work.

I could not agree more – on both counts.

One of the biggest problems our nation faces is the fear of retribution for violating political correctness that is slowly strangling free speech on campus. Free speech is vital to intellectual innovation as it is built on the idea that knowledge is always open to examination, debate, and experimentation. Even when we are right, according to John Stuart Mill, debate helps us define and explain why we believe what we do.

Yet on too many college campuses, a debate that makes people uncomfortable is met with harassment, investigations, and blackmail for daring to speak up – the same tactics used to silence African Americans during the civil rights movement.

Greg Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), says three false notions are driving this problem. First, is the notion that students have a right to be comfortably insulated from ideas with which they disagree. Second, too few students understand that true education includes seeking out intelligent people to discuss important issues upon which they disagree. Finally, he says, too many students believe they have to defer to the arbitrary authority of the school and have less free speech rights on campus than they have in society in general.

In 1957 when the hunt for communists focused on a professor at the University of New Hampshire, Paul Sweezy, the Supreme Court stepped in to make clear the importance of free speech on campus. In their decision to protect Sweezy, the justices wrote, “Teachers and students must always remain free to inquire … otherwise, our civilization will stagnate and die.”

Yet in a recent Association of American Colleges and Universities survey, only 30 percent of college seniors said they felt it was safe to hold unpopular positions on their graduating campus.

Dennis Prager writing for National Review last week told of his personal experience. “Because of my widely covered conducting of the Santa Monica Symphony Orchestra at the Walt Disney Concert Hall last summer, members of some of the most prestigious orchestras in America have opened up to me, telling me they are conservative but would never reveal this fact to their fellow musicians. They fear either losing their position or, more likely, being socially ostracized.”

I know the feeling. I commonly have friends approach me in a conspiratorial whisper to voice their support for this column. Why is it that having an opinion that most people agree with has to be whispered?

Not all is lost, however. At this year’s Sweet Briar College commencement, Nella Gray Barkley (alumni, class of 55) spoke about sexual harassment. Barkley included in her remarks (as many in her generation might), “it’s only natural for men from Mars [to] follow the shortest skirt in the room.” According to Scott Jaschik, reporting for Inside Higher Ed, the comment, “left many in the audience shocked that a graduation address at a women’s college would defend sexist and harassing behavior.”

I wasn’t there, so I don’t know if the audience was genuinely shocked or whether it was just a shocked liberal reporter who couldn’t believe a commencement speaker today would dare say anything so politically incorrect. However, College President, Meredith Woo’s response was perfect. Writing to students later about the manufactured crises she said, “You don’t have to accept or refuse her perspective — that is not the point — but I ask you to think about it. That’s what you have earned as [an] alumna of Sweet Briar — a woman with an ability to listen, cogitate, and take from it what you wish, and get on with your life.”

How refreshing is that?

According to one recent survey by The American Interest, the vast majority of professors support an open speech environment on campus versus a positive climate that prohibits offensive speech. Students generally agree with their professors. However, the numbers of students against an open free speech campus have grown from 22 percent in 2017 to 30 percent in 2018. This trend worries me. More importantly, I fear that while philosophically supporting the idea of free speech, too many students and professors are only willing to apply the principle to speech with which they agree.

Still, as Professor Wilkens suggests, the college campus presents our best chance of overcoming the hyper-partisanship strangling public debate.

Remember graduates; you cannot win the battle against hyper-partisanship by being hyper-partisan. State you case boldly and reasonably and seek out those who disagree. Refuse to live in a dogmatic bubble where everyone agrees with you.

And congratulations on your graduation; now go change the world for good.

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Student Concerns Should not be Dismissed…I agree

Last month I wrote about the nationwide high school student walkouts related to the recent shooting in Parkland Florida. Many of these events turned into advocacy marches for gun control and at least some of them were school sponsored. The response from my readers was fantastic!

Opinion pages only work when they stimulate conversation, and this one worked well. Small newspaper opinion pages are especially good at generating valuable conversations for two reasons. First, those responding must put their name to the comments. This cuts down on the trash talk. Second, because those responding must wait for the next edition of the paper to publish, the forced time-lapse gives them space to think through the issue.

So, to honor all of you who took part in this oh-so-democratic process, I wanted to do something that I usually don’t do – respond back.

Let me start by explaining that I focused my column on the issue nationally and not on local walkouts. If I gave the impression I was dismissive of local high school students, I sincerely apologize. Did local schools and students protest for gun control on school time? Did the local schools sanction them or force them to participate? I don’t know; I didn’t ask – and for that misstep in good local reporting I also apologize.

The truth is, I work with young people every day and have for decades. I am often amazed by their insight and understanding – for their age.

And as I wrote last month, it does my heart good to see students, local and nationwide, getting out and taking part in politics. However, I stand by my not so clearly expressed primary argument, that high schools have no appropriate role in organizing or supporting political protests on school time. It’s like opening a Pandora’s box. Already, just last week, groups of high school students across the nation had walkouts to oppose abortion and complained that they did not get the same level of support from their schools given to those protesting for more gun control in the weeks prior.

I don’t think we want to go there.

High school students undoubtedly understand grief and the need for action. However, even if some of those students are exceptionally well versed in the legislative process, and the effectiveness of gun control, organizing protests should occur outside the high school venue.

High school is about learning and maturing to the point that students are not ready to tackle these difficult issues as adults. Allowing for this maturing process is why we treat juvenile crime differently than adult crime. It’s why we restrict voting, drinking and driving to those of a certain age. And, it’s why we say, even in praising them, they have unusual wisdom – for a person their age.

Recognizing this, is not a slight against young people. Those who doubt me, have either never worked with youth, are naive to the point of foolishness, or, most likely, they see arguing with me as their job – regardless of my viewpoint.

Allowing students time off from school to pay their respects to the victims of this tragedy is appropriate. Protests by students organized and conducted outside of school are also fine. However, high schools need to stay out of politics – except to teach it. Students should discuss these problematic issues in the classroom where differing opinions are allowed and respected.

High school students are likely to see any activity where students are given time off from the classroom during regular school hours, as a school-sponsored activity.

In these situations, some students will feel pressure either from their peers or from their teachers to participate. The fear may be real or imagined, but high schools can easily avoid the whole problem by just not taking sides on controversial political issues.

If local high school walkouts, conducted on school time, were dedicated to remembering the victims and giving voice to the need for action, I support the school entirely. I think most people do.

But when it comes to young students and political protests, we need to be especially cautious. Protesting is a serious business. Some are dangerous. They are all unpredictable in their effectiveness, and too often, skilled organizers find easy targets for manipulation in the phycology of large crowds.

So that’s it. I could have responded by countering statistic with statistic, but that would have taken another whole article and would have only convinced readers of the ease of manipulating statistics. I could have surveyed students to see how many locals knew the three stated goals of the national protests, but I will trust the opinion of my critics on that one.

Instead, I hope this further explanation helps us put aside our differences and listen more to each other. The issue of school violence is too important to do otherwise. Then, perhaps we can keep this insane trench warfare of politics out of our high schools and give students time to learn and ponder the issues for themselves – before we force them to take sides.

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