Your weekly Free Expression Tunnel ‘controversy’

Campus News NC State Administration40

Jon Sanders and the John Locke Foundation has the comments that most closely echo my feelings on the topic. In this blog entry Sanders sets the table of the recent developments and comments on them.

If you don’t like something, ignore it, respond to it, or paint over it yourself. But don’t run crying to the authorities to take away the Big Bad Scwibbles.

Amen. Part of being the “FREE Expression” tunnel is that EVERYONE has a right to…wait for it…wait for it…I bet you can get it….EVERYONE has the right to FREE EXPRESSION — even if the expression if stupid, ignorant, controversial, sexist, racist, and/or offensive. For better or worse, a part of our right to free speech in this country is the right to be wrong and embarrass ourselves.

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40 Responses to Your weekly Free Expression Tunnel ‘controversy’

  1. SMD 11/04/2010 at 9:52 AM #

    Hell has truly frozen over, as I agree with something posted by the Art Pope, I mean, John Locke Foundation! 🙂

    Seriously though – I don’t get the big deal. Somebody says something stupid? Paint over it. You give it more attention by dealing with it in the manner that Chancellor Woodson chose to.

  2. StateFans 11/04/2010 at 9:56 AM #

    See, SMD!! We can all come together!!!

    I couldn’t agree more with your comments. Let’s use the consensus momentum and go solve health care!! 🙂

  3. Homeboy 11/04/2010 at 9:57 AM #

    not to be that guy, but you might edit the headline here… “Your”, not “you’re”.

    As for these racist pieces of excrement (edited) who wrote this graffiti, it’s primarily up to the State student body to quickly paint it over and not give any fodder to our critics. The NCSU chapter of KA has really become low-brow, it seems.

    I don’t see the point of blocking the tunnel…let people go in and paint it over.

  4. StateFans 11/04/2010 at 9:58 AM #

    ^”You’re” not that ‘that guy’! That catch is much appreciated!

  5. Daily Update 11/04/2010 at 10:11 AM #

    As the tunnel brings more bad publicity to the university, I am almost at the point that I support just getting rid of it altogether. People can express themselves freely in other ways, but not on university property.

  6. LKNpackfan 11/04/2010 at 10:12 AM #

    Let it remain free, and let offensive speech be defeated by more speech, not institutional tyranny.

  7. BAM 11/04/2010 at 10:23 AM #

    The John Locke Foundation (while stereotyped by some as another Conservative propaganda machine) tends to always be in line with whatever expands personal freedom. They seem to be more libertarian (with a small ‘l’) than anything. Thus, I usually agree with their assessments regarding less taxation, smaller government, and increased personal liberty.

    To Daily Update who said “People can express themselves freely in other ways, but not on university property”, if one cannot express free speech on government owned property, what does that say about our government and free speech?

  8. bradleyb123 11/04/2010 at 10:40 AM #

    Those protesters have no more right to paint on that wall than anyone else. Whatever they have to say is no more important than what anyone else has to say, and that INCLUDES the racists that painted the “bad words” in the first place.

    That’s what freedom of speech is about. If you don’t like what the racists wrote, then paint over it yourself.

    But they have NO right to block the tunnel. Back when I was at State, I think this might have escalated to violence. I think I read that police had escorted people “around the tunnel”, meaning they let the protesters block the tunnel. That’s what has me in disbelief. Police should appear and ask them to clear the way for the students that need to pass. And if they don’t, arrest them. Period.

  9. bradleyb123 11/04/2010 at 10:42 AM #

    To Daily Update who said “People can express themselves freely in other ways, but not on university property”, if one cannot express free speech on government owned property, what does that say about our government and free speech?

    To that I would add, if one cannot express free speech IN A TUNNEL NAMED “THE FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION TUNNEL”, what does THAT say???

  10. Texpack 11/04/2010 at 10:48 AM #

    I’ve always thought it was a mistake to try to shut up the Nazi Party, the La Rouche crowd or whatever fringe element there is out there making noise. The more you let these people speak and express their views, the dumber they look. One of the very reasons our Founding Fathers made an effort to protect speech was because they knew that people would be “offended” by differing views. No one has a “right” to live their life without being offended.

  11. highstick 11/04/2010 at 10:50 AM #

    Just don’t let Tarholes paint it Baby Blue!

  12. BassPacker 11/04/2010 at 10:52 AM #

    Has there been a William Barber sighting at the protest yet? He could block the tunnel by himself. Oh, its about free speech, not free food…my bad.

  13. Daily Update 11/04/2010 at 10:52 AM #

    Again, I am at the point where I would no longer call it the Free Expression Tunnel. Just make it like the tunnel that nobody paints. The people doing this stuff might not even be students. It just isn’t worth the bad publicity for the university. Freely express yourselves all day long, just don’t don’t paint university property.

  14. PackManSJP 11/04/2010 at 11:13 AM #

    You know, blocking the Free Expression Tunnel so that no one can write “hate speech” on it is no different than Wallace blocking the entrance to the University of Alabama in the 1960’s.

    The actions of an extremely small minority of bigots on campus does not constitute a need to block the tunnel. Tolerance is a two-way street. No violence has occured and I have faith that the vast majority of students are smart enough and open-minded enough to realize that these words and pictures are not the accepted or majority view of the campus community. I am a Christian, and when I was at State, I saw some offensive thing said about my faith on the walls. I did not agree with it and it made part of me angry, but I did not feel the people who placed it there had no right not to. This is the USA.

  15. Whiteshoes67 11/04/2010 at 11:33 AM #

    Agree with DU. Get rid of the “free expression” tunnel. It’s tacky. This is college, not middle school. If I were an NCSU official asked for comment, I’d say, “NC State supports free expression, even if distasteful. But we’re disallowing the disfacement of public property in the tunnel. We’re considering other public spaces in open, well-lit areas on campus. That way, should students want to express themselves in manners deemed offensive to most of society, in manners openly sexist or racist, or in poor taste, they have the freedom to do so in an area that provides more visibility.” Nip it in the bud.

  16. Whiteshoes67 11/04/2010 at 11:34 AM #

    Agree with DU. Get rid of the “free expression” tunnel. It’s tacky. This is college, not middle school. If I were an NCSU official asked for comment, I’d say, “NC State supports free expression, even if distasteful. But we’re disallowing the defacement of public property in the tunnel. We’re considering other public spaces in open, well-lit areas on campus. That way, should students want to express themselves in manners deemed offensive to most of society, in manners openly sexist or racist, or in poor taste, they have the freedom to do so in an area that provides more visibility.” Nip it in the bud.

  17. drizzlewolf 11/04/2010 at 11:37 AM #

    isnt it on state property? doesnt that limit the “freedom” right there? just get rid of it and be done with it.

  18. IMFletcherWolf 11/04/2010 at 11:37 AM #

    I hate that there are people (presumably students) on campus who paint such vile speech in the tunnel, but free speech is free speech. It’s not free if someone or some group decides what may or may not be allowed. Anything goes. Like others have said: If you don’t like what is said, either put your head down while walking through the tunnel or grab a paint brush.

  19. JEOH2 11/04/2010 at 11:41 AM #

    I have intimate knowledge of the past situation and I’d like to discuss this in-depth but I find blogging makes this type of discussion difficult to have…I’ll avoid it by just making this one statement that the kids who are apart of this have their hearts in the right place…though one may not agree with how or why they are doing this…

    Free Speech is Free Speech…I would’ve preferred that they spray painted a large message of tolerance on it…

  20. sksr97 11/04/2010 at 11:42 AM #

    Blocking the tunnel may or may not have been the best thing to do in protest. However, blocking the tunnel in protest is their form of Free Expression. Writing or speaking is not the only form of expression. I personally would agree to the painting over the distasteful grafitti and possibly some form of monitoring this type of stuff to be removed or covered. But also make no mistake, that for anyone to say or write distasteful messages about the U.S. President is un-patriotic as well.

  21. wolfie91 11/04/2010 at 11:48 AM #

    It is embarrassing, to be sure. Frankly, I’ve been offended by plenty of things painted there, but b/c they weren’t a PC issue, no one made a protest. Chancellor Woodson was painted in a corner (haha) as to how he could respond to this. Say anything other than what he did and he would create more of an uproar. Saying what many people think can get you canned, as Juan Williams found out.

  22. 61Packer 11/04/2010 at 11:50 AM #

    If our NCSU administrators were half as damned concerned over what’s been written on the walls of a campus tunnel, of all places, as they are over the state of NCSU sports in the past two decades, Wolfpack athletics wouldn’t be at the same depth as that tunnel.

  23. Alpha Wolf 11/04/2010 at 12:04 PM #

    ^ I am going to venture a guess and say you meant half as concerned about athletics as they are the tunnel’s screeds.

    Anyway, people need to remember that free speech is easy until it is something that is offensive. That’s when one must show they truly value free speech, not just free speech they agree with.

  24. tjfoose1 11/04/2010 at 12:30 PM #

    Let’s see… ban such expression. Check.

    Label as racists those who disagree with Obama. Check.

    Label as bigots those in favor of enforcing immigration laws. Check.

    Paint Tea Party folks as stupid racist bigots. Check.

    The next step? Anyone?… Anyone?

  25. bradleyb123 11/04/2010 at 12:32 PM #

    “Blocking the tunnel may or may not have been the best thing to do in protest. However, blocking the tunnel in protest is their form of Free Expression.”

    No, it isn’t. That particular expression is not free because it comes at the expense of others that have to give up THEIR right for them to do it. No one else could get in the tunnel to paint their own message, because it was blocked.

    It was a form of expression, but it wasn’t free.

    But the university has unblocked it I heard, so all is well again.

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