I was surprised to read about the recent incident in the parking lot outside Day Hall involving President Kotlikoff.
It was not because I view President Kotlikoff’s actions as disrespectful of deeply-held student beliefs regarding the freedom of speech; rather, it seems strange to me that anyone who had been unsuccessful in engaging another in a debate should react to that failure by preventing the other from leaving.
Cornell students who approve of that response have fundamentally misunderstood the concept of freedom of speech by a) ignoring its function as a safeguard to protect the exchange of ideas between willing participants in public discourse against politically-motivated punishment from the powers that be and b) mistakenly attaching to it a seeming obligation of citizens to endure nonsensical speechifying from every fool with an opinion until said fool runs out of breath.
To the so-called students (and non-students) involved in the incident itself: You have no idea whatsoever how utterly, stupidly pretentious you look on the unedited CCTV footage released by the University: standing still, phones raised, behind one car in a half-empty parking lot at night. Get over yourselves.
Paul Muller is a member of the Cornell Class of 1991
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