Port 80

In addition to the University of Dayton, one of the other schools I considered attending was Marquette. From what Michelle Malkin has posted today, it doesn’t look like my issues with campus ministry would be any different there. Marquette just shut down a College Republican fundraiser for the Adopt-A-Sniper campaign.

Upon Marquette’s statement on the incident, two things quickly become evident. First, it is clear that Marquette’s reaction was little more than a panicked response to a student group which pushed at the university’s comfort zone. The sole item at the table Marquette cites as specifically objectionable, “a bracelet with the motto ‘1 Shot 1 Kill No Remorse I Decide,’” does not exist. Although the Adopt-A-Sniper campaign sells dogtags with that logo, their bracelets are engraved with a completely different phrase. This sort of easily-checked factual error bespeaks a press release drafted with great haste and without much proofreading.

Secondly, Marquette’s response gives a frightening look into the academic left’s take on freedom of speech.

In the context of the university’s Jesuit, Catholic mission, we could not allow fundraising in the student union for a group whose rhetoric regarding “snipers” could be widely misinterpreted as having a cavalier attitude toward the taking of a human life.

Is this all that is required to suppress free speech by a private organization - the expectation that the words of that organization could be widely misinterpreted by those who didn’t do the necessary research? This statement brings back memories niggardly incident in Washington DC. Has a Catholic university decided that the limits on free speech should be decided by the misinterpretations of the ignorant? How is it possible to conduct academic discourse if speech can be forbidden without even considering the intent or meaning of the speaker? Certainly, if Marquette had examined the Adopt-A-Sniper campaign for more than a few minutes, they would know that “One shot, one kill” is not “rhetoric” but the long-standing motto of the sniper community.

The most damning admission, however, comes at the end of Marquette’s press release:

Marquette University strongly supports and honors the men and women of our Armed Forces and has sponsored many activities to support our troops. In addition, every branch of the United States military is represented on our campus though the university’s ROTC program.

Clearly, Marquette isn’t blocking the College Republicans because of some higher commitment to the ideals of pacifism and nonviolence. Marquette appears perfectly comfortable with supporting the troops when the ugly reality of war is held at a safe distance, and all they have to do is wave yellow ribbons and watch the ROTC corps hoist a flag every morning. However, Marquette’s administration just can’t stomach the idea that our troops might actually be called upon to bring death to the enemy.

Supporting the troops as long as you aren’t bothered with the ugly details of what they do isn’t a “proud tradition.” It’s the basest sort of moral cowardice.

[L]egal participation in war gives the soldier the right of life and death over strangers – and I had exercised it legally. If you don’t like the result, don’t send kids to war with guns. — John Rotundo, Charlie Rangers