On Liberty -- Revisited

"If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind." -- John Stuart Mill

President Lee Bollinger of Columbia University is to be commended for providing a forum by which the President of Iran could engage in some interchange with Americans. Undoubtedly Bollinger's guest does not get the opportunity for robust debate at home. However distasteful his views and his government's actions as a state sponsor of terrorism, it is better for him and for us to be exposed to each other's views so we may better understand them. My only question is whether President Bollinger's "introduction" might have been better had he respected George Washington's admonition, "Use no Reproachful Language against any one neither Curse nor Revile." Our first President said this about how to deal with low lifes,
"Never express anything unbecoming, nor Act against the Rules Moral before your inferiors."

Perhaps a few words of welcome to the land of the free and the home of the brave might have been in order to mark the solemnity of the occasion of the introduction of the visiting despot to academic discourse -- American style. While President Bollinger was certainly justified in condemning President Ahmadinejad's dictatorial regime, the tone was certainly not one that would impress the visitor that he was welcome to express his views -- however untutored and unpopular they might be. Ironically, it was Columbia that in 1968 suppressed dissent of its students by inviting the New York Police Department to force more than a thousand encamped protesters out of five buildings at Columbia -- an action that ended a seven day siege but may still rank as the largest police action ever undertaken at an American University. While President Bollinger has little in common with his stuffy and insufferable predecessor, Grayson Kirk, he might have considered the idea that President Ahmadinejad, like his university, might be better educated with civility and reason than self-righteousness and ridicule.