Today’s Lesson
“An email to Utah State University threatened "the deadliest school shooting in American history" if the school did not cancel a lecture by a well-known feminist writer and video game critic Anita Sarkeesian.” —Salt Lake Tribune
Logan—Utah State University students protested the cancellation of a feminist video game critic’s speech Wednesday. But they don’t blame video blogger Anita Sarkeesian for bowing out.
Instead, they criticized the anonymous emailer who threatened their campus with mayhem.
“This is an academic institution,” said biology
student Geoff Smith. “Without a free exchange of ideas, we don’t have
anything. So for that to be silenced or quashed or anything like that,
it’s wrong."
—Benjamin Wood, reporter, “USU students, faculty protest terrorist threats against critic of video games,” The Salt Lake Tribune, Oct. 15, 2014
AP Photo/Rick Bowmer
AP Photo/Rick Bowmer
• Editorial Comment: A teachable moment as vile threats wake up a university.
Backgrounder:
• “Terror threat against feminist Anita Sarkeesian at USU,” The Ogden Standard Examiner
• “FBI hunts emailer who made death threat against USU speaker,” Salt Lake Tribune
• “Anita Sarkeesian cancels Utah State speech after mass-shooting threat,” LA Times
PeezPix by Ted Pease
Mill Creek
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Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD
“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard
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The Rule of Law is supposed to protect the general population from unlawful violence. But here is a case where the idiotic laws on the books enable and empower the offender who levels a violent terroristic threat, while utterly failing to protect the general public.
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