Stay classy, Tar Heels

Full disclosure: I hate and despise the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I hate their teams, I hate their magazine, I hate their admissions marketing, I hate their perception of themselves. I don't even like driving past the signs for Chapel Hill on the way to the beach.

So I'm not posting this to take advantage of a ripe opportunity to bash the privileged, overly book-learned snobs at Carolina. I really do think last night's raucous protest of a speech by Rep. Tom Tancredo really is a "teachable moment" on the distinction between free speech and hate speech, how to respond ethically to people which with you disagree, etc.

For instance, throwing things, blocking the door and screaming obscenities aren't usually conducive to dialogue, at least in my experience. Unless, of course, the protestors weren't interested in dialogue, but in silencing Tancredo's extreme views on immigration policy. I can sympathize, because I, too, think Tancredo is a wingnut. But when we supposedly tolerant, open-minded progressives set the precedent of shouting down and running off anyone whose ideas we don't like, we forget that somewhere, somebody thinks the same thing about us. Do they have the right to break windows to keep us away?

This reminded me of a speech I saw several years ago by Morris Dees, the founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center. He told a story about a town (I wish I could remember where) surprised to learn that the Ku Klux Klan planned to have a parade through its downtown. Instead of counter-protesting and bringing the KKK massive amounts of publicity, the townspeople just agreed amongst themselves to stay away. All the downtown businesses closed during the parade time. So the KKK had their march, and had it through deserted streets. The town made its point without sinking to the level of its opponent.

Our ideas should be strong enough to handle scrutiny, which in miy mind includes debate with people on the opposite end of the issue. I hope that the UNC students involved in the protest do some serious self-examination... and maybe eventually some maturing.