So this is America...?

Reading the Australian papers I noted that last month that the battle for an Australian Bill of Rights has been renewed. It is interesting because, as I tell my students in the Civil Rights class here at UCSD, the US system with its guaranteed constitutional rights and freedoms is a world apart from the Australian experience. Even while the content of some of the Amendment rights is problematic (I have a sneaking suspicion they could do without the Second Amendment right to bear arms, for example, a view that I know is shared by Michael Moore) the right to freedom of speech would be considered fundamental and basic. The events on campus in recent weeks have made me realize just how violent the exchanges over “freedom of speech” can be. At the height of the bombing and attack upon Gaza by Israeli forces the Ethnic Studies Department released a statement on its webpage (see http://ethnicstudiesucsd.wordpress.com/ ). It was not partisan or biased in my opinion, but was raising the valid issue of force being used against innocent women and children in the attacks upon Hamas forces and personnel. I was unprepared for the hysterical response that followed with pro-Israeli students demanding to see the Department chair and declaring that the Department was adopting a pro-Palestinian position. One posting demanded that the statement be taken down “or reversed”. It is quite a revelation to experience such entrenched, didactic and violent views in, of all places, a University. What made me think twice was the cautionary note from some faculty, who are young activists involved in the hard-edge of community activism in places like Oakland, that we needed to be careful not to expose the faculty members to danger. The realization that the posting of an anti-war position could lead to conflict, harassment or even violence made me realize, all of a sudden, how far the USA is from downtown Yandoit. Or perhaps the world is changing and I just haven’t caught on. Either way it has taken the edge off the Obama dream, just a little.