Pause helpful for calmer analysis

When an apple has bruises and worms, you no longer need to inspect it. You know it is rotten. Yet on our campus marketplace of ideas, many are insisting we do exactly that: turn a rotten apple over and over again, hoping some part still catches the light.

During the summer news doldrums, Chris Clemens, the faculty adviser for the Youth for Western Civilization, stepped down, temporarily muzzling the organization at the University.

Unfortunately for them, the muzzle did not prevent a few summertime faux pas. In June, it became public that Marcus Epstein, whose early leadership in the YWC has since been well-ensconced, lobbed a karate chop at the head of an African-American woman all the while accosting her with a racial slur.

This was not his first run-in with the law, or his first with assault. Worse yet, screenshots were circulated from Epstein’s Facebook photo album that compared an Ethiopian to ‘a Dog walking on its hind legs’ and a ‘baboon’.

A July 5 post to the blog for the national YWC, the Hammer, stated that Islam is “barbaric” and “incompatible” with capitalism and democracy. Needless to say, fruits like these attract little more than flies.

Yet for the sake of defending free speech, many want to see the YWC stick around. One such proponent of the ideological free market is Elliot Cramer, who, while not agreeing with the organization, does not want to see students succumb to de facto censorship.

The current UNC president of YWC, Nikhil Patel, also offers lukewarm support for the national YWC. But granting sanction to the ideas held by the national group is the greater burden to bear.

Former U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., came to discuss college access for unauthorized immigrants. That issue needs to be discussed, and vigorously so — not whether or not Muslims are somehow unfit for democracy. Is that the intellectual discussion we are capable of? I certainly think not.

The requirement Clemens placed on our chapter of the YWC was a reasonable one — drop the national affiliation or lose him as an adviser. Now the organization is on life support; re-chartered by a president and faculty, neither of whom support the YWC mission as much as they cherish the self-evident value of the diversity of opinion.

While the fact that “America’s right-wing youth movement” is kept alive at the University by the welfare of a few compassionate liberals is fabulously ironic, it is also painfully imprudent. Organizations of every political stripe have a right to exist, but do they beyond being self-sustaining?

Before shouting “censorship!” we have to consider the possibility that the Youth for Western Civilization has had its day in the sun and has since soured.

Everyone has to face the consequences of their own actions.

Raucous protesters last April saw their share of backlash, which came in the form of strained relationships with groups and a thorough public flogging.

After Tancredo was shouted down this past April, this campus was left acutely sensitive to any threat to freely express ourselves.

That is a good thing; we should be quick to defend our most important liberty and should do so unconditionally.

Luckily for the YWC it may yet still participate in the public debate. If it does, it should do so responsibly, as should everyone else. The summer has granted everyone a reasoned and thoughtful pause.