Belly of the Beast

Free speech lives, however tenuously, in the heart of the Conservative Citadel. George Mason University in northern Virginia has long been known as a bastion of free market economics and social policy. Yet even in an intellectual bastion of Conservatism, in a very conservative state, people are willing to speak out against the Iraq War and those who attack dissent. When a young Air Force veteran of Muslim heritage was arrested for distributing counter-recruiting information next to military recruiters, over 100 students and faculty organized a teach-in to support free speech on campus. The numbers may be small, but the fact they are at George Mason University gives me hope that Americans will begin to question the war.

The event also prompted complaints about police and university conduct, will allegations of ethnic slurs and use of excessive force by officers and civilian bystanders. A letter signed by 129 faculty members calls for an independent review and the university’s policies regarding the “free exchange of ideas.”

Tariq Khan, the veteran whose dissent precipitated the incident, is a brave man to step forward in such a hostile environment. His actions are in the finest tradition of veteran activism against war.

Small events in the grand scheme of things. Perhaps the small trickles that will join with others to form a mighty river.

Like I said, it gives me hope.