University should invite Tancredo back to campus

TO THE EDITOR:

Lost in all the scolding of those who disrupted former U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo's ill-fated speech and the numerous odes to free expression is the fact that there was something legitimate to protest. Sadly The Daily Tar Heel seems to have forgotten this" preferring to let the founders of Youth for Western Civilization mask their nativism in rosy platitudes to some apparently lost heritage. Never was this clearer than in the front page puff pieces ""National YWC leaders surprised at UNC reaction"" (April 21) and ""In the spotlight"" (April 20).

It fell instead to the conservative Carolina Review" not known for its objective or investigative journalism and the spark of its own recent controversy on a sensitive subject to expose YWC's dangerous ideology. I encourage everyone to read their blog post" ""Virulently anti-Immigrant Student Group Forms at UNC"" (April 14). This is not to mention Tancredo's own views on immigration and multiculturalism" which are summarized on www.ontheissues.org.

We should all get to hear those views but to truly live up to the University's mantle of free speech and inquiry those ideas also should be challenged face-to-face with Tancredo. I was at first opposed to the University officially inviting him back to campus because it could be read as an endorsement of his views and as an admission that the University at large rather than a select few did something wrong.

But if it is with the caveat that he make himself available to respectful questions and debate from the public and if no University funds are used to bring him back those who went to the event last week intending to engage with Tancredo will finally get their chance.


Dustin Ingalls
Former Speaker Pro Tem
Student Congress
Class of 2007