Where is the Moral Outrage...Again?

I previously posted a piece entitled Where is the Moral Outrage? which documented both the political harassment of American college students by left-wing professors and the hiring by Hamilton College of an instructor who was an unapologetic alumna of the Weather Underground terrorist group.

Yesterday's mail brought the January 2005 issue of Commentary magazine to my house and it included yet another example - this time at Duke University - of morally indefensible behavior by people who are so caught up in their left-wing politics and multiculturalism-centric relativism that they have lost touch with the guiding principles of our country and just don't get the concept of tolerance.

While the magazine article entitled "The Intifada Comes to Duke" is not yet available on the web, I would encourage you to read the Power Line posting I saw this morning on the issue.

After reading the Power Line posting, consider this excerpt from the article and reflect again on how extreme and intolerant the enemies of freedom have become:

...the close of the conference did not mark the end of Duke's experiment in "discussion and learning." To appreciate what happened next, it helps to know that...the university's two Jewish organizations...had opted from the beginning to refrain from criticizing the university...At the same time...they formulated a "Joint Israel Initiative." This was a resolution pledging that both they and the PSM [Palestinian Solidarity Movement] would conduct a civil dialogue, would together condemn the murder of innocent civilians, and would work toward a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict...

But whatever hopes the Jewish campus organizations held out for a civil dialogue were rapidly dashed. Representatives of the PSM refused to sign the Joint Israeli Initiative, objecting in particular to its condemnation of violence...[then] Duke's Jewish organizations themselves - and Jews in general - became the object of furious attack.

Meanwhile, the article noted the response of the President of Duke:

"...the deepest principle involved [in hosting the conference] is not even the principle of free speech. It's the principle of education through dialogue."

The President subsequently went on to condemn the "virulence" of some of the PSM's critics.

Contrast this whole episode with the peaceful and democratic change that has been happening in the Ukraine. Or, the similar change in Poland roughly 20 years ago. Which pathway - PSM or Ukraine/Poland - represents the tradition we should be spending our time studying and encouraging as models for the future of the civilized world?

So, I ask the same question again: Where is the Moral Outrage? These people should be ashamed of themselves. We should be outraged at and appropriately intolerant of the lack of moral principles rearing its ugly head - yet again - in the politically correct American academy.

ADDENDUM:

The article is now available online.

ADDENDUM II:

Duke University and the article's authors have engaged in a subsequent exchange about the original article.