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Free Speech No Longer Free At Harvard
Minuteman Project Founder's Appearance Cancelled.
Anti-Free Speech Fanatics at Harvard Threaten Disruption and Violence.
Cambridge, Ma.- Harvard University seems to be resigned to suffer the same embarrassing fate as Columbia University in 2006 as they scamper to rescind their previous invitation to Jim Gilchrist, founder and president of the Minuteman Project, to participate in its immigration symposium scheduled for this Saturday, October 17 in Cambridge, Ma.
Despite appearing at last February's symposium at the Harvard Law School on immigration law with invited panelists ranging from legislators and government officials to academics and private practitioners from across the political spectrum, campus philosophical fanatics have terrorized the Harvard Undergraduate Legal Committee (HULC) with disruptive threats if Jim Gilchrist attends their proposed convention.
"For almost six months student sponsors of Harvard's Public Interest and Law Conference have planned for my appearance at Harvard University, but the minute they received threats from fellow students these pre-law students shied away from defending free speech," Minuteman Project president Jim Gilchrist said. "That future graduates of the most renowned university in the world are literally afraid to support the very cornerstone of the foundation of our nation, namely 'free speech,' ought to frighten anyone looking to America as the beacon of liberty, freedom, and justice for all."
With just five days notice, after over five months of planning his appearance, HULC gave Gilchrist notice that it was forced to rescind its invitation due to serious threats from unnamed anarchist radicals on the Harvard campus. The spokesperson for HULC said the threats were sourced in only some errant students. He said no faculty members were involved in the threat to wreak havoc upon the Cambridge, Massachusetts campus.
The HULC posted the following vague announcement on its web site Tuesday, Oct. 13:
Regarding the Participation of Mr. Jim Gilchrist at PI&L 2009
The mission of the PI&L Conference is to educate and provide a forum of productive discussion on how to use law and public service as tools for social justice. With this mission in mind, we encourage intellectual, honest and respectful discourse by individuals and the organizations that they represent. Unfortunately, Mr. Gilchrist's participation in the conference on the behalf of the Minutemen Project was not compatible with providing an environment for civil, educational, and productive discourse on immigration, and we cannot host him at this time.
URL: http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/legalcom/speakers.html
Sincerely,
The Harvard Undergraduate Legal Committee
"For the past two years Harvard has welcomed the open expression of ideas from the Minuteman Project during similar symposiums," Gilchrist said. "It is shocking that free speech, the most coveted principle of any free nation, is now something that ordinary Americans, including our wounded combat veterans, apparently now must fight for. I never dreamed that Harvard University would eventually allow free speech on its campus to be doled out only to the meanest thugs wielding the biggest clubs."
Gilchrist, whose 5600-word essay on immigration was published by Georgetown University Law School in 2008, was also invited to submit an immigration-related article for publication by the Harvard Journal on Legislation earlier this year.
In 2006 Columbia University and Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City apologized to the Minuteman Project for the attempt by members of that school's Chicano Political Caucus and International Socialist Organization to physically pummel Gilchrist and throw him from the stage when he attempted to speak at an event sponsored by a Columbia University political club.
Gilchrist, the president of the Minuteman Project, is a retired California CPA and a former newspaper reporter. He founded the "multi-ethnic" Minuteman Project in 2004 to encourage public debate on what he refers to as a chaotic and careless attitude by our nation's political governors toward our nation's physical security, its domestic tranquility and economic prosperity. He is a passionate defender of free speech and an avid supporter of law enforcement organizations. He is a decorated veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps and the recipient of the Purple Heart award for wounds sustained while serving with an infantry company in Vietnam in 1968 and 1969.
"It is obvious why our Founding Fathers placed the Second Amendment directly after the First Amendment," Gilchrist concluded. "When free speech is no longer an irrevocable right, well, that's what the Second Amendment is for...to preserve the First Amendment...for everyone on U.S. territory."
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Published by Georgetown University Law School Journal
