There was a time when fraternity pranks meant something. When a frat had to really do something creative or at least utterly stupid to get kicked off a campus. One of the best stories I know of was about the Theti Xi chapter at CMU. In a hell night circa 1959, the brothers went out and welded a trolley car to the tracks. One brother asked for change for a twenty, which was a large sum at the time. And yes, trolley drivers did carry change back in that politer and better behaved day and age. Meanwhile one or more other brothers placed the thermite “bomb” at the trolley’s wheel. The rest is history. The City of Pittsburgh had to send out a crane to lift the trolley off the track after the segment of track was cut in front and behind with a torch. Hey, these were CMU engineering students. They know how to do it the job right.
The frat of course got suspended from pledging for nearly four years and was nearly wiped out. Which is fair enough for a prank of that magnitude and expense. But it was funny and the stuff legends are made of. I’d not have believed it at all if one of the brothers had not shown me a scrap book with the original city newspaper clipping. I also saw the wheel and section of track, which were still floating around frat row in my day.
So what is my point? Well, Glenn Reynolds has just posted this link about a rather minor bit of frat fun at the University of Wisconson. At a student variety show, a student pretended to be a black basketball star known for his lines in a commercial. They thought it would be even funnier if he appeared in blackface makeup.
For this the school is considering expulsions. Now I am not one to just idly sit back and talk. I used google, the search engine what God gave us, and with a trivial amount of work arrived at the email address of the Vice Chancellor. I settled for him since there was no email address for the Chancellor. The point of this ramble is best summarized by the email which I have sent to him:
I think you should think long and hard about the real meaning of this and the liberties that will be infringed upon if the fraternity students are punished for basically… nothing at all.
University life is a time for doing silly things, being a complete idiot, even being a total ass. That is part of being a member of a free society.
Likewise others have the freedom to state that they think you have been foolish. However they do not have the right to force you to behave or speak otherwise. Those are the protections that the constitution gives all Americans. It does not say “Freedom of speech, so long as you say or do nothing contrary to the prevailing local opinion”.
Your students have the right to burn the flag, protest war, wear blackface makeup, streak across the campus commons, and do any of those things that students do. Other students have the right to disagree and to state their disagreement, whether it be to have a pro-war demonstration or to stand outside the frat house with signs. That is what a free society is all about.
What a free society is *not* about is heavy handed enforcement of behavior from above. I would sincerely hope that should that be the course the University takes against these kids, that they get a good civil liberties lawyer and sue the pants off you.
As Russell Means said at the 1987 Libertarian National Convention, “Freedom is For Everyone.”
