Pirate's Cove

Let’s be clear: the 1st Amendment’s Free Speech clause was meant to denote the ability of Citizens to have their say about Government without fear of reprisal from Government. To complain about it, to denounce it, to say negative things about it, to call it out. Excluding the Religion Clause, the entire 1st is about the government not being allowed to retaliate when citizens complain, point out wrongdoing, malfeasance, etc.

Of course, Free Speech has been extended into other realms. If I want to call someone an @sshole, well, they may not like it, but I cannot get into legal trouble, either criminal or civil. Though if they pop me one, hey, consequences. But, we can’t yell fire in a movie house unless there actually is a fire. We can’t threaten to kill someone. We can’t tell untruths about people. Certain obscenity. That isn’t free speech, particularly in the view of political speech. But, what about speech that offends?

(Daily Caller) Fallout continues unabated at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln after a graduate student senator wove an amazing tapestry of racial slurs during a student government meeting last week.

The student, graduate research assistant and Ph.D. candidate Cameron Murphy, used the n-word a bunch of times in the course of citing a comedy routine by Chris Rock, reports the Daily Nebraskan, NU’s campus newspaper.

Murphy, who won his seat thanks to a successful write-in campaign, also questioned whether it was offensive to don sombreros in a Homecoming skit. And, of course, he offered as evidence of his own cultural awareness the fact that he has been called a “cracker.”

Obviously, this seriously upset the student government, and much of the student body. He was making a point about a resolution passed by the student government at the taxpayer funded school about offensive speech. These kids enrolled in an institution of higher learning didn’t get it

“I was in shock. I was sick to my stomach,” fellow student senator Annie Himes told local ABC affiliate KLKN.

“The body was visibly uncomfortable,” she added. “People had their hands on their faces. People had their heads on the tables.”

Himes praised herself for heroically asking Murphy to stop speaking.

She also wants Murphy brought up on charges in the student court. The school chancellor, Harvey Perlman, had a little meltdown about this free speech. Here’s from the Daily Nebraskan opinion piece on the matter

If the non-discrimination clause was doing its job, Murphy wouldn’t have made his comments in the first place. And really, what right does one group of students have to decide whether minority groups need protection from discrimination? Sure, free speech is alive and important. But our student representatives should hold themselves to a higher standard in the way they conduct themselves and interact with others. (snip)

This incident could be a good opportunity for students to more closely examine how ASUN senators are representing the school. Let’s applaud the senators, like Eckstrom and her supporters, who are culturally and socially open-minded.

Liberals like free speech only when it is approved by them. And this is how we end up with Hate Speech laws, which criminalize Free Speech. Because obviously no one should ever be Offended. Unless they are conservatives, then it’s open season, of course.

Read: UNL Student Learns Valuable Lesson On Liberal Meaning Of Free Speech »