rec.arts.theatre.musicals

AHMADINIJAD: We do not have homosexuals in Iran as you do. We do not
have this phenomenon. (speaking at Columbia U. 9/24/07)

An image I'll never forget is the photo of two young boys, ages 14 and
13 as I recall, who were publicly hanged in Iran after being accused
of homosexuality, while a huge mob looked on cheering. A heart-
breaking photograph that virtually defined the word "barbaric".

Today, Columbia faculty and students are congratulating themselves on
their devotion to "free speech" for inviting brutal, barbaric dictator
Ahmadinejad to speak there. But why? It's not as if Ahm. lacks
forums for his nonsense and lies. He holds forth at the . and at
home all the time. You can hear him speak 24 hours a day, if you
want, on the internet.

If Columbia's so devoted to free speech, how come they ban ROTC and
military recruiters from speaking on campus? Why don't they invite
the Grand Wizard of KKK to speak, or the heads of NAMBLA or the
American Nazi Party? They're certainly more in need of a public forum
than Ahm. is.

The answer is an old one: my enemy's enemy is my friend. The powers-
that-be at Columbia hate Prez Bush so much, they're willing to lend a
sympathetic ear to anyone, no matter how monstrous, as long as he's
sufficiently anti-Bush.

Columbia has a right to invite anyone they want to speak. I don't
deny that. But I'm afraid the university's president is right: if
Hitler were alive, they'd invite him too. And I bet he'd get just as
much cheering and applause from Columbia's students, eager to show how
open-mind and non-judgmental they are.

Me, I keep thinking of those two boys with their necks broken,
swinging from a scaffold in Tehran ...