Link-o-rama: Intellectual Diversity

Ron has an excellent post up about the recent furor over an MSU student suing the university for being asked to write a letter supporting gay marriage to state lawmakers. Said student is now shilling for big change. Emily Booker testified in Jeff City this week on a piece of legislation called the Emily Booker Intellectual Diversity Act. Sayeth Ron:

The radical right's other specialty is wordnapping -- stealing perfectly decent words and twisting them into something contrary to truth. Take "intellectual diversity." Under the Brooker Act, it's defined as "the foundation of a learning environment that exposes students to a variety of political, ideological, religious, and other perspectives."

C'mon. Do you really believe they mean it? A "variety" would include perspectives from across a broad spectrum. Brooker and her supporters in the Missouri General Assembly want to squelch perspectives that differ from their point of view. They're pushing for less diversity, not more. That's anything but intellectual.

Commenters on the post point out that you could easily switch out "right" for "left" when either side has their panties in a wad about any given issue. Perhaps, but it seems to me that the right is far more hell bent on taking away our rights than the left is.

You see, this whole proposed law is yet another vehicle to keep us from hearing information. While I agree no one should be forced to write a letter to state lawmakers about something that goes against their beliefs, I also think it is wrong to squelch any form of speech. Especially in a university setting.

Have we really become such wusses that we simply CANNOT hear something we disagree with? Seriously. I for one am sick to death of all the homophobic garbage I hear coming from the mouths of the wingnuts on the radical right.

What protects me from hearing that? Not a damn thing. And you know what? That's okay. I actually like to know where the crazies are even if I don't especially want to hear what they've got to say. I learned at my father's knee that the best answer to speech you don't agree with is more speech.

Open your minds. While no one will ever convince me that being gay is wrong, I acknowledge that there are people who cannot accept it. I feel sorry for them. But unlike many of them I don't refuse to acknowledge their existence or try to fix them. Whatever happened to live and let live?