Bring Tancredo back: UNC students should have the opportunity to show we value freedom of speech

Everyone deserves the opportunity to have their opinions heard especially on university campuses.

Even particularly controversial speakers like former U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo R-Colo. deserve to have their voice heard and not be silenced by radical protestors.

And that's exactly why UNC-system President Erskine Bowles and Chancellor Holden Thorp should invite Tancredo back to finish a discussion he wasn't even allowed to start.

Our students came out of last week's ordeal looking like speech-silencing zealots because of the actions of a very few while others attending the event wanted to hear Tancredo speak.

Worse Tancredo now has the moral high ground.

Bowles or Thorp should use their offices to bring Tancredo back to UNC. Administrative action will send a message that the University takes free speech very seriously.

While bringing Tancredo back may not allow us to repair the damage already caused to the University it will allow us to prove to our community and beyond that we can learn from our mistakes.

And perhaps more importantly it will reinforce UNC as the tolerant university it truly is where free speech is respected without qualification.

Lessons such as tolerance and dialogue are easily taught in classrooms but are more difficult to fulfill in practice.

The Tancredo fiasco was a good opportunity to test whether students can indeed carry out the tolerance we perpetually preach.

Some students failed that test.

As the academic year draws to a close we can recall other controversial events that transpired without disruptive protest.

If Tancredo decides to return to UNC lets show him that we indeed know how to engage in civil discourse.