free-speech

CASPER, Wyo. — A federal judge ruled Tuesday that the University of Wyoming must allow 1960s radical William Ayers to speak on the school’s campus in Laramie. The university had cited threats of violence in not allowing Ayers to speak at a campus event planned for Wednesday. U.S. District Judge William Downes said Tuesday that violent threats can’t be used as a reason to deny Ayers’ right to speak on campus. Ayers, a professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago, now plans to speak at UW on Wednesday at the invitation of a student.

In the wake of numerous death threats and vandalism plaguing House Democrats who voted for health insurance reform, many have been asking if the actions of Sarah Palin and other right-wing pundits cross the line from free speech into criminal speech. Sarah Palin published on her Facebook page a list of twenty Democrats who voted for health insurance reform and who are elected in districts that used to be Republican. Their locations on a map of the United States are marked by crosshairs - a symbol that clearly refers to target practice and violence.

Ann Coulter, the self-described “conservative Christian” talking head, is much on my mind as I contemplate the horrifying images that came out of Washington from the Holocaust Museum, where white supremacist James von Brunn opened fire in an attempted mass-murder of Jews. His killing spree was cut short by security guard Stephen Tyrone Jones who put himself in the line of fire and died so others might live.