Stand Alone. |
He goes on to suggest that universities have set up intellectual quarantines lest the immature and frightened be made uncomfortable or to feel unwelcome.
He questions whether universities are in fact schools or daycares.
And finishes off his paragraph with Giving into such adolescent whimpering is despicable; giving in to in on a university campus is unforgivable.
I find it hard to disagree with him.
The comments on the Post's Facebook page have fallen into name calling and accusations of Big Oil influencing Murphy.
I kid thee not.
Have we, as a people, really forgotten what it means to educate? What it means to disagree? Have we lost all respect for those simply because someone may have a different opinion that us?
How about this... are we now falling over backwards to avoid disagreement?
Or what about this... are we afraid of being labelled intolerant? Afraid of being called Islamaphobic?
That's right, the article is about how Brandeis University in Massachusetts had first offered an honourary degree to a world renown "advocate for women’s rights under Islam", Ayaan Hirsi Ali (full name: Ayaan Hirsi Magan Isse Guleid Ali Wai’ays Muhammad Ali Umar Osman Mahamud), then rescinded it after an outcry from the Council on American–Islamic Relations, a controversial organization that deals with Islamic advocacy issues.
Ms. Ali is a Somali-born American (formerly Dutch) women's rights and atheist activist, writer and politician who is known for her views critical of female genital mutilation and Islam.
In other words, this is a woman unafraid of those who would oppose her views on women's rights. Someone who deserves our support and admiration.
You may remember that event, he was shot eight times by his killer, had his throat cut, almost decapitated with "a large knife, after which he stabbed the knife deep into Van Gogh's chest, reaching his spinal cord. He then attached a note to the body with a smaller knife. Van Gogh died on the spot. The two knives were left implanted. The note was addressed and contained a death threat to Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who was subsequently forced to go into hiding, threatened Western countries and Jews and also referred to the ideologies of the Egyptian organization Takfir wal-Hijra".
Yet still she refused to submit.
"In 2005, she was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. She has also received several awards, including a free speech award from the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, the Swedish Liberal Party's Democracy Prize, and the Moral Courage Award for commitment to conflict resolution, ethics, and world citizenship. In 2006 she published a memoir. The English translation in 2007 is titled Infidel. As of 2013 Hirsi Ali is a fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, a member of The Future of Diplomacy Project at the Belfer Center."
Someone with credentials... someone who knows what it means to live a life of inequality, a life of suppression.
But no, instead of 'standing up' to a little criticism the school of 'higher learning' caves.
All for one? |
At that point I simply smiled at him and put my head back into the book I was reading, I knew there was no point. Didn't stop him though, nope. I was 'this and that', 'ignorant and unclean'(?). and on it went.
For weeks.
...
:l
And this typifies what our society has indeed come to. We shut-up lest we 'offend' someone. I miss the time of healthy debate, sitting around a kitchen table (remember those parties?) and yakking for hours on end, about anything and everything.
No more, now we must conform, hold the same ideas and ideals, the same goals... all for one and all for one. Stand up for what you believe in at your own risk.
Read the article, click those links. Educate yourself, your children (above all educate your children) to question everything and everyone.
Before it's too late...
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