President and Professor Lee C. Bollinger, First Amendment legal scholar, discusses the state of free speech on campus in an interview with the Columbia Spectator.
The entire system we have built up over a century critically depends upon judges and leaders condemning the content of the speech at the same time we insist on “protecting” or “tolerating” it.
Anyone with a voice can shout over a speaker; but being able to listen to and then effectively rebut those with whom we disagree—particularly those who themselves peddle intolerance—is one of the greatest skills our education can bestow. And it is something our democracy desperately needs more of.