Letters to the Editor
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‘Teaching Moment’
With his powerful and eloquent speech at Monday’s Ahmadinejad event, Columbia president Lee Bollinger has gone some distance in redeeming himself for letting the event take place at all [Editorial, “Teaching Moment,” September 25, 2007]. Some distance, but not the whole way.
Had Mr. Bollinger issued his statement (absent a few free speech pieties) as an explanation for revoking this ill-advised invitation, he could have sent a strong message that American academics are united with their fellow citizens in the clear-eyed recognition that Ahmadinejad and his regime are mortal enemies of America, and beyond the moral pale. Granted, there is a certain satisfaction in showing contempt for Mr. Ahmadinejad to his face. But what did yesterday’s event accomplish, beyond providing an interesting day to Columbia’s students?
Our conflict with Iran is not a game, and there are more important values than providing intellectual titillation to college students
Perhaps President Bollinger believes that only by hearing Mr. Ahmadinejad in person can Columbia students truly appreciate the evil he represents.
But if he is really concerned that his student body is so uninformed about world affairs, he should devote his energies to increasing the rigor of Columbia’s curriculum, not to mounting diverting spectacles.
HOWARD JAECKEL
New York, N.Y.
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