Opinions
Page 4A • Sunday, March 6, 2011
Our View
The Daily Citizen
Silencing free speech harms Harding, its students
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he recent launch of an online gay and lesbian publication by past and present Harding University students, and the university's subsequent decision to block this website, has raised more questions than answers. The publication, called, “The State of the Gay,” is produced anonymously by a group called HU Queer Press. The publication, which details the experiences of gay and lesbian Harding students, was blocked on the campus network by university officials Wednesday afternoon. During chapel Thursday morning, the university's president, Dr. David Burks said: “We know that this doesn’t keep the website off of campus, since anyone with a smart phone has easy access to it. And I think it is important for you to know that we are not trying to control your thinking on this. But it was important for us to block the website because of what it says about Harding, who we are and what we believe.” Which raises the question: What does the university hope to accomplish? This heavy-handed measure was not only ineffective, but it provided the publication much more attention than it would have gathered otherwise, giving the university a black eye in the process. Suppression of speech is not an effective way of dealing with a message with which one does not agree. Right or wrong, the students and former students behind HU Queer Press have raised legitimate concerns regarding life on Harding’s campus that are not going to go away by simply sweeping them under the rug. That is not to say that the publication’s authors are without blame. In one instance, a writer calls out a specific university professor, while hiding behind a veil of anonymity. Some authors use profanity and descriptions of sexually graphic acts, which are unnecessary and detract from the pamphlet’s more serious messages of depression, fear and suicidal thoughts. The writers would be better served by sharpening their focus on those messages. When free speech is suppressed, everyone loses. We urge university officials to lift its ban on this publication and let the conversation begin.
STAFF VIEWS
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Sergo Mikoyan and the Soviet Union 50 years ago
here is the old story of the two ships passing in the night in which nobody on either ship knows they have been close to other people from exotic places or close to home. Being an admitted Titanic nut, I have always been struck by the fact that the Californian sat 10 miles away as the world’s greatest, largest and newest cruise ship, and went down with more than 1,500 dead. All of them could have been saved. During my trip to eastern Europe 50 years ago, our group of 42 was among the first news people allowed since 1917. We were wined and dined and given interviews with people who would be the top officials for the next two decades. — The Daily Citizen I met and chatted with for a couple of minutes with Anastas Mikoyan, one of
Today in history
Today is Sunday, March 6, the 65th day of 2011. There are 300 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On March 6, 1836, the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, fell to Mexican forces after a 13-day siege. On this date: In 1834, the city of York in Upper Canada was incorporated as Toronto. In 1853, Verdi's opera "La Traviata" premiered in Venice, Italy. In 1857, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Dred Scott v. Sandford that Scott, a slave, was not an American citizen and could not sue for his freedom in federal court. In 1933, a nationwide bank holiday declared by President Franklin D. Roosevelt went into effect.
In 1944, U.S. heavy bombers staged the first fullscale American raid on Berlin during World War II. In 1957, the former British African colonies of the Gold Coast and Togoland became the independent state of Ghana. In 1967, the daughter of Josef Stalin, Svetlana Alliluyeva (ah-lee-loo-YAY'vah), appeared at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi and declared her intention to defect to the West. In 1970, a bomb being built inside a Greenwich Village townhouse by the radical Weathermen accidentally went off, destroying the house and killing three group members. In 1981, Walter Cronkite signed off for the last time as principal anchorman of "The CBS Evening News."
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PERRIN JONES two close pals of the late Premier Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union. My interview, about 10 minutes long, was with soon-to-be Soviet Premier Brezhnev. It was a fascinating experience because, at that time, we had an appointment with Premier Nikita Krushchev, who cancelled us out because of an unannounced visit by Cuba’s Fidel Castro in the Crimea. They sent us the second tier of leaders including Malinkov, Bulganin and a handful of others for interviews.
All of which leads up the invitation of the 42 of us to a luncheon with the Union of Soviet Journalists in their headquarters dining room, sort of like our National Press Club in Washington. As fate would have it, I was seated next to a journalist named Sergo (seergoy) Mikoyan who was also a history professor in Moscow. We hit it off and I hung around to talk to him after the meal, finding my way to the next event on my own. Speaking perfect English, this distinguished young man gave me the whole Soviet position on Cuba just after the missile crisis. Obviously, he was the son of Anastas Mikoyan, who was the diplomat that Khrushchev sent to Cuba to work out
the missile crisis and Sergo went with him as his secretary. Sergo wrote several books on Latin America and the Far East Soviet policy as well as many academic papers. For a while he even taught at Georgetown University. We exchanged notes a couple of times over the years on historical subjects, but I hadn’t heard from him in a decade when I ran across his name in some research I was doing a week or so back. Sergo died last year at 81 of leukemia at a Moscow Hospital, noted as one of the most honored historians in Russian history. A passing ship in the night. Perrin Jones is Editor Emeritus of The Daily Citizen.
ONLINE VIEWS
Facebook Question of the Week This week, we asked our Facebook fans, “Do you believe that recent earthquakes in the area are linked to the Fayetteville Shale Play?” Some of their answers are published below.
Rick Brooks
Nathan Miller
Benita Meharg Selvidge
Searcy
Searcy
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“No, because there was a similar outbreak of quakes in the 80s, before the drilling, in the same area, that was very similar in nature. I think we overestimate the power of man’s ability to alter the planet’s patterns of geologic and weather activity.”
“Yes, I believe it is linked to the Fayetteville Shale drilling, because they’re taking a natural gas out of the earth that was put there for a reason when God created the earth.”
“I would have to say that the drilling and high velocity of injecting water and sand back in the ground has had a part to play in the quakes. Yes we are all aware we have fault lines here, but would they have been as active at this time regardless? My opinion is no."
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