Here is a partial Letter to the Editor to the David Irving lecture atWashington State University. It sheds amazing light on what preceded theevent and what the feelings were once the event had run its course withoutthe slightest hitch. This letter comes from Steven Kale, an Associate Professorof History, who deserves ten lashes from Ann Landers' proverbial wet noodlefor irresponsible intellectual bias:
"Irving's lecture tops off months moral cowardice, irresponsible provocation, legalistic hand wringing, and intellectual blindness on the part of the press (including The Daily Evergreen), the Faculty Senate, and especially the university administration . . .
I said months ago that [NAME REMOVED] was a vicious anti-Semite with ties to a wide network of neo-Nazi organizations whose affiliations endanger the security of the Jews of the Palouse.
I said that his goal is not to debate the Holocaust but to use the freedoms afforded by an open society to spread poisonous notions, such as the one repeated by Irving Monday night to the effect that Jews who died during World War II were responsible for what happened to them.
Monday night was an immense victory for fascism, anti-Semitism, and the neo-Nazi cause. The size of the crowd at Irving's talk will be touted by [NAME REMOVED] and his friends as a demonstration of their growing influence and legitimacy, regardless of the truth of the matter. Not only was the crowd large, it was, as the Daily News said, not entirely unsympathetic.
Here is what the advocates of unfettered free speech have wrought: a not entirely unsympathetic audience of college students for a speaker who made a clear gesture of solidarity with the greatest act of mass murder in history, and who said in broad daylight (or twilight, as it were) under the cover of the respectability afforded by the venue where he spoke that the Jews who died during the war years were somehow responsible for what happened to them. This is an extraordinary thing. It is nothing less than a disaster for WSU, Pullman, and for Jews everywhere in the United States."
The rest is just as interesting but deleted so as to stay within theword count of "permissible fair use" a librarian once told meI should obey.
Just thought I should give you a taste of what goes on behind closeddoors in academia when a curious student discovers a taboo.
Ingrid
Thought for the Day:
"Archie doesn't know how to worry without getting upset."
(Edith Bunker)