Prof's "Death to Israel!" shout mildly criticized

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I think I remember reading about some pagan diety with the Celts/Druids involving Halloween for the first time back in 1968 when a biology high school teacher forced her students to read publications involving Garner Ted Armstrong and the WWCG. I had to write a report on "EVOLUTION: A Whale of A Tale" against Evolution. Other booklets cited the Duck-Billed Platypus as evidence against evolution, but to me, it looked like a good example to support evolution. The WWCG shunned most holidays to the preference of modified and renamed Jewish based holy-days. The family wasn't close to the WWCG until the late 1970's. All of my encounters with religions have ended badly, mainly because of prejudices with moderately rare physical impairments I have, and/or bizarre church official's conduct.

Tadzio

Yes, the insane ramblings of one professor outside of his lecture hours are all the proof you needed.

By the way, October 31st is also important to Protestants, and in particular, us Lutherans, as Reformation Day. So, by day, we commemorate Luther hammering his 95 thesis on the church door, while at night our kids dress up and we take them out for trick or treating.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

They say, "Don't fee the trolls." Well, I unwittingly brought too much troll food into this thread. I had had a tough week, and my estimation of the general maturity level of my audience was off (which equals troll food). I apologize to the other serious-minded individuals (few though there are) in this thread -- people who understand that advocating another Holocaust deserves criticism, not defense. Ruveyn put it best, that the issue is not, of course, whether free speech exists in this country, but rather a much more local issue regarding the use of a private auditorium to say things which the owner of that auditorium does not have to allow. And my position (and perhaps his as well) is that the owner of the auditorium should not have allowed -- without swift and severe punishment to follow -- such hateful and clearly-inflammatory speech which does nothing to advance debate or promote any real thought. Also, of course, hatred against the Jews is not "an idea which I do not like", as someone alleged. It is an idea that God does not like, and therefore it is wrong. This can be debated among fools, but that changes nothing.

It does raise questions, is it ok to fire professors for hate speech out of context? Freedom of speech is there precisely to protect speech that is not pleasant on our ears. Although "death to Israel" is rather dumb and deserving of getting fired, it is not something he did under the role of a professor but as an activist attending a presentation. So, should people be fire-able for things they say outside of work? It is definitely not as unambiguous as you present it.