Heckler's veto

Ever since it was previewed on The O'Reilly Factor, it has been clear that Ann Coulter's speech to the University of Connecticut would be received in a less than respectable manner. But, according to the Hartford Courant, the address wasn't so much rudely received as not received at all.

The heckler's veto has returned, and this time it manifested itself in Storrs, Connecticut. The crowd was so obnoxious, loud and disrespectful that Ms. Coulter was forced to cut her address short after 15 minutes.

Now I am not a big fan of the conservative ideologue's. She has always been a touch hyperbolic for my taste, and some of her views boarder on what I deem to be absurdity. So I can see where the campus liberals were up in arms.

But the whole idea of free speech is to create a marketplace of ideas. This, though, is a notion apparently lost on the University of Connecticut student body. Rather than fighting speech with speech, they destroyed speech with gibberish. And the entire university ought to be ashamed of it.

Much as I may bicker about Madison's slanted politics, this city hasn't seen a heckler's veto since before I came to the University of Wisconsin. Sure Daniel Pipes had to gaze at a middle finger in the crowd for the entirety of his speech, and College Republicans tried to shout down Michael Moore, but event organizers have always managed the situations properly and ensured that the speaker in question could do just that – speak.

UConn security and organizers clearly weren't as well-organized or, perhaps, simply didn't care. Audience members unwilling to shut up and listen ought to have been arrested and Ms. Coulter ought to have been given a peaceful podium. But she wasn't.

And that can only leave one to ponder just what it was she had to say that UConn's liberals were so afraid of being heard.