by Bob Walsh
In the 1960s I spent more than a little time on Telegraph Ave. next to the University. I hung out at Cody's and the Print Mint and Sproul Plaza. (I even met Patty Hurst there, at Cody's I think, before she became a terrorist).
It was a haven for free thinking, free speech and free sex. And occasional doses of tear gas. It was a great time to be alive.
That has all changed. Now the University of California is a bastion of political correctness where dissension is not permitted and any opposition to the existing dogma is punished severely.
That being said a court ruling from earlier this week was a breath of fresh air. The University has to shell out $70k to a campus group that wanted to bring the occasional conservative (perish the thought) thinker onto campus for their legal fees. They also have to stop charging outrageous "security fees" for conservative speakers to speak. They also have to abandon their semi-official "hecklers veto" whereby panic-stricken liberals merely voice opposition to a conservative speaker and HINT that there MIGHT be unpleasantness if that person showed up and the university would withdraw permission for that person so speak on campus.
It remains to be seen if this will TRULY change the universities position and posture or if they will invent new impediments to speakers that do not fall in with the PC liberal dogma. It is, however, a step in the right direction.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Only sort of! This applies only to invited speakers. Within the university it will continue to be the politically correct way or the highway.
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