Authors:
The April 13 edition of the Collegian included a letter to the
editor by CSU Republican Chairman Chuck Fogland regarding a guest
speaker brought to campus by the Palestinian Student Association
via ASCSU. Fogland says he was “appalled” at the speaker’s “bigoted
statements” about Zionists. I can’t speak on behalf of PSA or the
speaker they brought, but to clarify, Zionism is a political
ideology, not a culture of identity such as an ethnic group. So, by
definition, you can’t be bigoted towards Zionists anymore than you
can be bigoted towards ‘liberals’ or ‘conservatives.’ Nor is it
necessarily anti-Semitic to admonish the policies of the political
entity known as Israel.
Semantics aside, Fogland brought up interesting points about how
he feels that ASCSU unfairly allocates funds to PSA and “other
groups like Action Awareness and F.R.E.E.” to “actively oppose a
party or candidate or group of candidates.” For the record,
F.R.E.E. has never supported or opposed any party or candidate. Nor
does the group have any desire to do so. The only times we have
received ASCSU funds were for speakers to talk about issues
relating to the global economy.
Although some of his information is inaccurate, I still applaud
Mr. Fogland for raising concerns tantamount to charges of taxation
without representation. If he were truly appalled at ASCSU for
funding certain programs he doesn’t like, it would only be
consistent to also be appalled at ASCSU’s funding for pro-Israel
speakers that they’ve also sponsored. More importantly, what about
the taxation of American citizens to pay for policies (not just
speeches) that many of them disagree with, such as invading other
countries or putting corporations like Lockheed Martin or Exxon on
welfare (policies that have been enacted by administrations of both
parties)?
But that’s beside the point. Supreme Court rulings have ruled
over and over again that universities cannot deny funding for
student groups to bring events to campus that might include views
that some students disagree with, because doing so would undermine
the nature of public universities as open forums where ideas should
be freely expressed. Freedom of speech is utterly meaningless and
worthless if it does not extend to speech that you don’t happen to
like.
Matt Glesmann
Senior, Political Science
President, F.R.E.E. (Finding Racial and Economic Equality)
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