Modern Mccarthyism
Cal State Fullerton has denied a teacher a job for refusing to sign a loyalty oath. The idea was put into place in the late 40’s to keep Communists out of the faculty. The oath states that you will defend the US from all enemies, foreign and domestic. The teacher in question only wanted to add a statement saying that she was a pacifist. She was refused.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-oath2-2008may02,0,6280956.story
This is shameful for the university and the entire country.
When you allow yourself to sink to these levels, you’re letting those so-called enemies win. America is about freedom of speech and the pursuit of happiness. If my pursuit of happiness doesn’t involve violent clashes with abstract political enemies, then I have every right to say that I will not take part in it.
One of the favorite lines the Administration has used since 9/11 has been that “the terrorists hate our freedom.” If that is true, then we need to be doing everything in our power to preserve that freedom here at home.
We have a sad legacy when it comes to protecting the freedoms of people that are perceived to be threats. With each great global conflict, huge swaths of Americans are persecuted and their rights are violated in the name of security. I’m talking about the blacklisting of socialists during the Cold War, the detention camps for the Japanese during WW2, and now the regular horrors that the American Muslim community is subjected to in the midst of the War on Terror. It wasn’t right then, and it isn’t right now.
If Cal State Fullerton really intends to preserve America and its ideas, it would do well to protect the very freedoms that make it great.
