Sh*t Jim Gilchrist Says
Like many of my fellow students, I was tired when I woke up Thursday morning. Not because I had to get up early or because I had a late night, but because I arose to find a front-page story about the Columbia University College Republicans attempting to invite Jim Gilchrist, Co-founder and President of the Minuteman Project, back to campus.
Sigh.
I don’t like Jim Gilchrist. I don’t like that he has close ties with someone convicted of murdering two people—one of them a nine-year-old girl—in a robbery she hoped would fund her own vigilante border activities. I don’t like that one of his fellow Minutemen violently kicked a Columbia student in the head the last time he was here. Most importantly, I don’t like that he leads an organization that engages in hateful and inhumane practices.
Proponents of Gilchrist’s visit—those who agree with his actual views and those who do not—have cited the need for free speech and the value of hearing different opinions, even if you find them despicable. Gilchrist has turned himself into a martyr for free speech, attempting to make that the central issue, rather than his actual views.
I’m here to change that. Seizing the zeitgeist, I would like to present: “Sh*t Jim Gilchrist Says.”
All quotations are taken from an essay published by the Georgetown University School of Law in 2008.
The residents of our nation face a threat to its existence by a Trojan horse illegal alien invasion of a magnitude unprecedented in U.S. history.
That sounds reasonable, right? It’s no problem to dehumanize millions of people with the phrase “illegal alien”—which he uses 52 times in the essay—while fear-mongering about an “invasion,” right? At least he slipped a Homer reference in there.
I doubt that the U.S. will have a civil war in the very near term. But, a break up into several ‘nation states,’ much like what occurred in Russia, is not beyond imagination for the not-so-distant future.
This, too, strikes me as the model of intelligent, engaging discourse.
Columbia University is perhaps the most incurable suppressor of free speech among the many campuses that engage in that despicable transgression.
It’s a shame U.S. News and World Report doesn’t have a category for incurable suppression of free speech.
The Minuteman Project’s tool of choice to accomplish its task is, of course, the First Amendment. We choose the pen, the voice, and the anticipated free marketplace of ideas.
And, you know, guns.
Universities like Columbia must value free speech. But let’s not forget, as we debate this effort to bring Jim Gilchrist back to campus, some of the actual sh*t he says.
Sam Klug is a senior majoring in History and is a bit of an old soul at 23. He even enjoys listening to old, soul music (Al Green, Diana Ross, etc.) on a regular basis.
I’m a staunch liberal, and I have to say that this post is one of the worst-argued pieces to ever appear in Spec.
You can’t just offer up quotes talking about first amendment and be like, “Oh, well the USNW doesn’t have a ranking for that. LOLOLOLOL!!!” as your only evidence.
And I have many criticisms of Gilchrist, but his use of “illegal alien,” a term that just about EVERY politician uses, as an attack on him?
And criticizing one of his associates for defending himself after dozens of Columbia students rushed the stage, started the riot, and put him in danger?
It’s posts like this that make me ashamed to be a Dem on this campus. This is really the best we can do? Great job, guys.
KW,
Well said. You remind me of some of my “so-called” liberal friends in the Democratic Party.
If I may paraphrase Winston Chruchill: “Propaganda travels half-way around the world before the truth has a chance to put its pants on.” I am so accustomed to the propaganda surrounding the Minuteman Project that I easily deflect it as the fanatical extremist rant that it is. Actually, we need such comments from persons like Sam Klug to compare the difference between rational, mature, intelligent thought and Klug’s rabid idiocy.
Klug is your typical predatory propagandist…a 23-year-old kid whose boldest act in life is probably sharpening a pencil….with an electric pencil sharpener.
KW, this is probably how the controversy of whether I am entitled to free speech or not will go down: Selfish and grossly intolerate bigots on (and off of) your campus will make such a stir and threaten such a calamity if I speak at Columbia that the College Republicans will probably fold any plans they might have to invite to me.
So, not to worry. Bigotry/hatred/intolerance is as bigotry/hatred/intolerance does. However, anti free speech zealots like Klug and Co. will also have to shut down the Columbia Spectator if they totally and completely want to stop free speech on your campus. Fat chance. :)
Apologize for hurting Klug’s feelings? Fatter chance. He is what he is: a frenzied anti free speech loon, However, he can purchase some Kleenex at the campus bookstore to daub his tears. Perhaps a box of diapers as well.
With all due respect and candidness,
Jim Gilchrist, President in Good Standing, The Minuteman Project
Error correction:
“Chruchill: should be spelled Churchill. Sorry Klug. Now you’ve lost your opportunity to add a spelling error to your caprice list of the mortal sins against humanity committed by members of the Minuteman Project.
Jim Gilchrist
Error correction:
OMG! I inadvertantly spelled “intolerant” incorrectly. Will Sam Klug ever forgive me for being an imperfect mortal?
Jim Gilchrist