Political correctness run amok!

Alan Dershowitz just wrote an interesting post on Huffington Post. He basically stated that one of the reasons why Larry Summers, ex-president of Harvard University, was fired from his job, is due to his opinions on Israel. I do not attend Harvard University (and never have), so I cannot speak to what it is like to attend it. But I can speak to my alma mater, Cornell University. I did have one professor who insisted that Zionism was racism, and that all support of Israel must cease and desist. She was also a strong subscriber to the belief that the Western opinion of the Middle East has been wracked with so-called "orientalism." After Septmber 11, 2001 (I took this class in the Fall Semester), my professor proceeded to speak to America's fault in causing 9/11. And that's fine. I think there should be free expression, especially in the academic environment. I only happened to have had one class where the topic of Arab/Israeli relations was even mentioned, so I cannot speak to what the broad spectrum of professors think. But I can speak to a general attitude of campus leftists, which was, as Dershowitz maintained, very pro-Palestinian. A study was completed over a year ago, which showed the vast outnumbering of "conservative" professors on campus with "liberal" professors. There is a question as to whether this is because conservatives are simply less likely to be philosphers or english professors, or whether there is viewpoint discrimination on campuses. Given the "firing" of Larry Summers (well, he resigned, but he was certainly pressured to leave), it certainly has become clear that some amount of viewpoint discrimination is occurring on college campuses. (at least, at some colleges)