Free speech is alive and well

Re “A word to protesters: Heckling isn’t free speech,” Opinion, April 14

Nico Perrino’s piece admonishing liberal students who disrupted events on college campuses where conservative figures were invited to speak ignores the reality of how conservative value systems dominate day-to-day life in this country.

Perrino, the executive vice president of a conservative think tank, should consider how many students’ experiences at home, at work, on social media and in the public sphere in general are defined by cultural conservatism.

The Republican and conservative student clubs that invite speakers such as Ann Coulter hold ideas that already dominate lived reality throughout the country, and yet they treat their relative minority on a few acres of campus ground as a microcosm of the U.S.

Second, prominent conservative minds retain a plethora of paid speaking opportunities elsewhere; their being shouted down in one arena is a flea bite on the back of public discourse as a whole.

Third, conservative campus groups routinely choose the most odious representatives possible, people whose audiences would be minuscule if not for the presence of their detractors.

Why doesn’t Perrino focus on the day-to-day interactions between liberal and conservative students if he wants to see his “proper” form of free speech in action?

MATT NEEL

Sherman Oaks

Perrino makes a good argument, but some points need clarity.

Too many on the left view protest as a holy rite that absolves any excess. For example, the “Tennessee Three” are cleared because no property was damaged. Everything is peaceful protest, or at least mostly peaceful. Protesters are convinced of their virtue and correct beliefs.

But protests force people to listen. In fact, peaceful protest is almost an oxymoron, as disruption is inevitable. The holy grail in a democracy is not protest, it is the ballot box.

One has free speech on your own time and your own dime. In other words, you cannot hijack someone else’s event or venue. Employees and students cannot use a college event or graduation or anything else for their own purposes. One does get a pass for speech, whether political or for profit.

Every event has an organizer who makes the rules. Authorities should never hesitate to enforce those rules.

WILLIAM N. HOKE

Manhattan Beach