BY BARBARA EFRAIM
Bruin Republicans held an event May 11 that demonstrated the tolerance and civility of the UCLA community. David Horowitz, a former radical leftist and now conservative activist, gave a speech, followed by a Q&A, titled “Intellectual Terrorism: The Left’s War on Free Speech.”
In the past, he has gotten pies thrown at him, and his speeches at universities across the nation are regularly interrupted by hecklers from various student organizations. But this time, there were no outbursts during the speech.
The civility Horowitz received is exceptional, but it does not belie the pressure Bruin Republicans and the David Horowitz Freedom Center received prior to the event. Such were the pressures that the group was advised to hire armed campus security officers to be safe. The event nearly filled Moore 100 and while I’m glad it ran smoothly, I wonder where the dissenting voices went.
It’s remarkable that conservative groups have to use enhanced security measures to ensure events are uninterrupted. On May 7, I attended Noam Chomsky’s lecture hosted by Students for Justice in Palestine in Young Hall, CS 50.
There was a long line, formed hours before the start of the event, and people were waiting to take a seat and listen to a lecture that would attack American foreign policy and compare the Israeli democracy to South African apartheid. I agree that Chomsky has the liberty to speak, just as I expect someone who shares my beliefs would have a right to make his views heard.
But as opposed to Horowitz, Chomsky did not have any security guards at his side.
The completely different environments surrounding the two speakers are reflected in the way UCLA’s media covered both events ““ or didn’t. While the Daily Bruin covered Chomsky’s event, Horowitz was not mentioned in the News section.
On May 9, The Bruin featured on the front page an article calling Chomsky a “star,” an “activist,” and a “soft-spoken professor delivering a frank critique of U.S. foreign policy and its support for Israel.” Had there been any more such adjectives, I would have thought the author was drooling over Chomsky.
This is the man who recently wrote that there’s no strong evidence of Osama bin Laden playing any role in 9/11, and that George W. Bush committed crimes worse than those of the recently executed terrorist.
Yet there was barely any mention of Horowitz, the conservative speaker who Bruin Republicans brought to counter the effect Chomsky would have on this campus.
Horowitz spoke about a broad range of topics: the absence of intellectual diversity on college campuses, the threat of Sharia law and the need for moderate Muslims to speak out against it, the call for the Jewish community to build up courage and stand with Israel and the African American community’s disparities and what he would do to resolve those issues.
The recent Undergraduate Students Association Council elections focused much of their time on campus climate. If there ever was civility, it was shown at the Horowitz event. It’s a shame the Daily Bruin can’t make this known to the rest of the UCLA community.
Efraim is a third-year political science student.