Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

The Right Response to Protest

It seemed almost preordained that, amid Georgetown’s free speech confrontations in recent months, a group of religious sensationalists took to Healy Circle to preach against Catholic teachings. Allowed to continue their disruptive ranting so long as their feet stayed beyond the bricks of the front gates, the outspoken visitors used a bullhorn to communicate their rather extremist message.

Although the trio of protesters harangued passers-by, their hatred-filled religious unilateralism was countered honorably. Georgetown students engaged with humility and respect — not an easy choice when going up against someone shouting through a microphone. They engaged with intellect and understanding, and they demonstrated a readiness to have a mature dialogue with those who have radically different views.

It is this readiness that is central to this campus’s current debate on free speech. What Georgetown students were ready and willing to do was engage — and these motives and understanding extend to students of all beliefs, from those at the H*yas for Choice table to those at the Vita Saxa table next to them.

In a setting where the virtue of Georgetown’s Catholicism was openly called into question, students demonstrated remarkable maturity, further supporting claims that campus-wide free speech would not make Georgetown any less Catholic.

In a free speech ruling in 1971, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court John Harlan wrote, “That the air may at some time seem filled with verbal cacophony is, in this sense, not a sign of weakness but of strength.”

Verbal cacophony, no doubt, filled the intersection of 37th and O streets on Wednesday. The result, however, was unambiguous: A community of students, well-educated both in mind and in spirit, stood up in the face of hatred. No one could ask for anything more.

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