Unintended Consequences

Unintended Consequences

By John Petroski

It happened quicker than I expected, but here we are. A person’s right to freely express their political thoughts is clearly under attack. The 400+ emails various editors tell me The Recorder received following last Wednesday’s publication of the article Bush or Bin Laden: Who is More Evil? is definite proof of that.

Here we have an article written not to make light of a horrible situation, or to poke fun at any particular group, but written to express political ideas that many in this country, including myself, do not agree with. And for that simple fact, Ryan Yeomans is being dragged through the coals.

As is the fashion these days, many people who do not agree with Mr. Yeoman’s thoughts are calling for his censure. Many people on this campus and in this country, it seems, want only their own thoughts to have some right to publication, and march and protest, and demand the removal of editors, or the banning of publications, when they fail to cater exclusively to them.

This is no different, if you put emotion aside and really think about it, than the uproar over my rape satire, or the recent controversy surrounding the PolyDongs comic. For those were both made in part to freely express what their respective authors found funny, and both of those were lambasted by critics and protestors who did not agree that we had any such right. In both cases, people called for censorship, demanded the ouster of certain editors, and, in essence, demanded that only things they approve of be permitted publication. Such people should hang their heads low today, for they are traitors to all from across the globe who have fought and died for a basic right every human being should have: the freedom to express themselves.

Yet there is another group of people who should also hang their heads low today, and I am among it, as is Mark Rowan. We are the people who were in a position to defend Freedom of Speech, and hereunto failed. When, last February, Mark Rowan said that he “[W]ould never use the First Amendment to defend [the rape article],” he caved in to outside pressures, and struck a blow against Freedom of Speech. Likewise, when I stood before the nation and apologized for my article, I did the same.

I should never have apologized, Mark Rowan, and the editors who voted for my removal should have backed me, and we should have collectively taken up the fight for Freedom of Speech. We erred back in February in an attempt to save our skins, and today we are seeing consequences to something far more important than any of our futures as a result.

Well I for one will not make that mistake again. I will defend The Recorder, the author of PolyDongs, and Ryan Yeomans. I have their back, and the back of anyone, from any race, gender, political ideology, or sense of humor who has ever been attacked for publishing something others did not agree with. I have the back of Grant Woolard, the University of Virginia cartoonist who was recently fired for his comic entitled, Ethiopian Food Fight. I back the College Republicans of the University of Rhode Island who were also assaulted for expressing their views on Affirmative Action. I back the many journalists from throughout the globe who have been threatened, beaten, and in some cases murdered, for having the courage to publish things that others did not like. I back the Danish cartoonist who drew the often criticized cartoon of the prophet Mohammad with a bomb on his turban, and I back people like Howard Stern, Don Imus, or Marshal Matthers, who have faced a life of scrutiny for expressing themselves as well. I back the students at Tiananmen Square who braved the tanks for freedom, and I even back people I personally detest, such as the KKK, neo-Nazi groups, and members of the Westboro Baptist Church. I back them all, from the most reprehensible to the most noble, and I do so not because I agree with each and every one, because I certainly don’t, but because I realize each and every one must be backed, lest none of us be.

For that is the key. We cannot pick and choose which parts of Freedom of Speech are backed or supported. We must not only defend those who we agree with. We have to stand up for each other. We have to make sure that the rights of all minorities are protected, whether they are minorities because of their race, gender, sexual affiliation, religion, political ideology or even sense of humor. For if we fail to defend the right of free expression for those we personally disagree with, it is only a matter of time until we ourselves are defenseless to the onslaught of discrimination and oppression.

I have crossed the Rubicon to back you. Back me.