Right Voices

Granted we are talking about San Francisco, but come on people!  Debra J. Saunders, the author, gets it:

WHAT IS San Francisco State University teaching that makes student leaders think that if they don’t like what other students say, they can use student organizations to stifle those with dissenting views? Do they even know about the First Amendment?

This is nuts:

This story starts with an “anti-terrorism rally” held last October on campus by the College Republicans. To emphasize their point, students stomped on Hezbollah and Hamas flags. According to the college paper, the Golden Gate (X)Press, members of Students Against War and the International Socialist Organization showed up to call the Republicans “racists,” while the president of the General Union of Palestinian Students accused the Repubs of spreading false information about Muslims.

In November, the Associated Students board passed a unanimous resolution, which the (X)Press reported, denounced the California Republicans for “hateful religious intolerance” and criticized those who “pre-meditated the stomping of the flags knowing it would offend some people and possibly incite violence.”

Now you know that there are students who are opposed to desecrating flags on campus ” that is, if the flags represent terrorist organizations.

But wait ” there’s more. A student filed a complaint with the Office of Student Programs and Leadership Development. OSPLD Director Joey Greenwell wrote to the College Republicans informing them that his office had completed an investigation of the complaint and forwarded the report to the Student Organization Hearing Panel, which will adjudicate the charge. At issue is the charge that College Republicans had walked on “a banner with the world ‘Allah’ written in Arabic script” ” it turns out Allah’s name is incorporated into Hamas and Hezbollah flags ” and “allegations of attempts to incite violence and create a hostile environment,” as well as “actions of incivility.”

At an unnamed date, the student panel could decide to issue a warning to, suspend or expel the GOP club from campus. …

The university’s response? Spokesperson Ellen Griffin told me, “The university stands behind this process.”

And: “I don’t believe the complaint is about the desecration of the flag. I believe that the complaint is the desecration of Allah.“

Parents who send their children, at obscene costs and financial hardship, to be educated in such an environment certainly should be asking what their children are learning in institutional settings where diversity is a shibboleth, but political homogeneity and conformity are the norms. 
Ms. Griffin, in her capacity as official apologist for a campus that enshrines and defends the anti-American left, is well versed on the clashes between General Union of Palestinian Students and college Republicans.  In November 2004, when members of the General Union of Palestinian Students verbally and physically attacked College Republicans for exercising their rights to distribute campaign literature in behalf of President George W. Bush’s reelection, SFSU decided to prosecute not just the Jihadists, one of whom threatened to blow herself up, but also the College Republicans who were, according to police reports and witnesses, totally on the receiving end of the attack.  Clearly, at SFSU, the immediate penalty for being a Republican and being attacked is to be indicted along with your attackers.It’s Ms. Griffin’s job to clean up after the administration of President Robert Corrigan.  And it can’t be easy.  Let’s see what she has to say.  You decide what is going on here.

Ms. Griffin writes, ”In truth, the four female students (three of whom are U.S. citizens) who engaged the College Republicans in a heated dialogue were not members of the General Union of Palestine Students.  They are not Palestinian, and the General Union of Palestine Students has denied association with the women.”

In Ms. Griffin’s characterization there is mention of only four female students.  And they were engaged in a ”heated dialogue.”  Later Ms. Griffin tells us that she knows the motives of these students as they accosted the Republicans.  ”They approached the table to criticize Republican policies:.”

How refreshing!  What an artful portrayal.  Four students engaged on a college campus in ”heated debate” with political adversaries.  Isn’t this what the campus experience is all about?

Lee Kaplan describes a rather different type of engagement–a menacing mob of over ”300 Palestinian, Arab, Muslims, and radical leftist students surrounding [the Republican] club’s table.”  Kaplan tells us that 13 San Francisco State police officers were forced to surround the table to protect the Republican students.  This is the incident of Nov. 3, 2004, the day after the election.

     Why take Lee Kaplan’s word for it?  After all, he writes for what some SFSU officials have described as a sensationalist Internet magazine.  Dare I say, ”Frontpage?”

     First, there are those photographs.  But if those aren’t sufficient, Kaplan has posted the SFSU police reports for the first day of the confrontation, Monday November 1, 2004.  Look, I believe Kaplan.  But you might not.  Maybe I am just a conservative nut and Ms. Griffin is right.  Go to the website and draw your own conclusions.