Now, Kushner's Critic Has His Freedom of Speech Threatened (UPDATED)

[oberliner]

There's a move afoot -- led by the faculty of the City University of New York -- to force Jeffrey Wiesenfeld from the CUNY board. Wiesenfeld, it will be recalled, blocked John Jay College, part of the CUNY system, from granting the playwright Tony Kushner an honorary degree, because of Kushner's views on Israel (he doesn't like Israel very much). Wiesenfeld's campaign was wrong (and subsequently reversed), but is this new situation much different? The faculty wants to purge the CUNY board of someone who has, by their lights, objectionable views, and who used his position as an appointed member of the CUNY board to advance those views.

Perhaps everyone in the CUNY universe should simply learn to live with objectionable views. And perhaps the CUNY board should consider whether it wants to turn Jeffrey Wiesenfeld into a free-speech martyr, just as Wiesenfeld tried to turn Tony Kushner into same.

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/05/now-kushners-critic-has-his-freedom-of-speech-threatened-updated/238728/

[Hannah Bell]

1. One has to imagine that CUNY faculty and administrators

are grateful that it’s nearly summer vacation. The current academic year has been a difficult one, with a wave of controversies centered around the murky overlap of intellectualism, free speech, and popular—and unpopular—opinion, all within the confines of a publicly funded university system. In September, it was the assigning to freshman of Moustafa Bayoumi’s book “How Does It Feel To Be A Problem? Being Young and Arab in America,” which was decried by alums as anti-Israel indoctrination. In January, it was the views of Professor Kristofer Petersen-Overton, who was hired to teach Middle Eastern politics, removed by the CUNY board for his views on Israel (a New York politician labeled him a “pro-suicide bomber”), and eventually reinstated.

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2011/05/literary-smackdown-tony-kushner-vs-cuny-1.html#ixzz1M43VJZpj

[xchrom]

2. +1

[oberliner]

5. So much attention to this issue

Controversies galore!

[Warpy]

3. It's not his freedom of speech

it's his ability to bully other people that he finds threatened.

Like all bullies, he resents it.

Honestly, allowing this man to stand in the way of a well deserved award because the recipient said things he didn't like is far worse. Few awards would ever be bestowed because everybody has said something to offend some martinet, somewhere.

[oberliner]

4. Good point

Well said.