To The Editor:
It is so ironic that liberals are often the most intolerant people around. Robert Lendvai's diatribe against free speech ["Limit Free Speech," The Dartmouth, April 3] was the best proof of this phenomenon I've seen in a long time. The ultimate hypocrisy of the self-righteous left is its prejudiced exclusion of any opinion other than their own, all in the name of open mindedness, awareness, and tolerance. Free speech, according to the author, "creates a welcoming environment for harassing opinions and harebrained insults." Where is it written that American citizens have the right to go through life and never be insulted or disagreed with or offended?
Lendvai writes, "The harm and pain [Kenji Hosokawa's] column recent column caused readers...could have been prevented." I'm sure that 90 percent of Dartmouth students have been scarred for life by this piece, the same mysterious 90 percent that agrees with every point of his proposed speech code. He creates a perfect example for himself of ignorant, inflammatory drivel; it's too bad that Mr. Lendvai didn't go to a more "eventful" school like Yale; he wouldn't have to import or invent racial crises and hate crimes to whine about.
My favorite suggestion is "remove books from Baker library that contain communist...propoganda [and] expel Dartmouth students that do not support [a hate speech code] -- undoubtedly they are advocates of hate." (Surely these monsters are the detestable remaining ten percent! Up with the blacklist!) Lendvai sounds more like Senator McCarthy than Mr. Rogers; more strangely, he would have to censor his own column under such a clause. And of course, "no racist drivel advocating the end of affimative action," this policy being one that bases personal worth and potential on the level of melanin in one's skin.
"HAH" would better be used as an appropriate verbal reaction to Lendvai's article than as a rather thinly veiled euphemism for the Dartmouth Thought Police.
