Opinion: Free speech is under attack at UC Berkeley. Taxpayers must fight back.

To the editor: What a disgrace. Our colleges and universities are supposed to be places where students learn to think and challenge each other’s thoughts. They are supposed to be places for the free exchange of ideas. (“Let Ann Coulter speak,” editorial, April 26)

Today, they have become places where free speech is under attack. Students and faculty sometimes shout down speakers such as Ann Coulter or Milo Yiannopoulos; some even get violent.

It is time that we taxpayers demanded that public colleges such as UC Berkeley become places suitable for the free exchange of ideas.

Irving Leemon, Northridge

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To the editor: Coulter — whose speech at UC Berkeley was canceled and then rescheduled, only to be canceled eventually

by Coulter herself — has the right to speak wherever she wants and continue to throw verbal bombs, enabling her to make headlines and remain relevant.

Her worthless ideas, though, are best suited for right-wing media outlets, where she is apparently doing quite well.

Free speech is a noble idea, but it’s never free. California taxpayers should not foot the bill for her worthless and inflammatory rants. Allowing her to speak at UC Berkeley would shore up her weak legitimacy but would at the same time diminish the prestige of our venerable university.

Domenico Maceri, San Luis Obispo

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To the editor: Your editorial misses an obvious point: People right of center are, in general, more committed to free speech than are those on the left. I can’t think of a recent incident where a leftist was prevented from speaking by a right-wing mob.

The conservative students at UC Berkeley and other campuses are in an environment where the faculty in the social sciences and humanities probably have more Marxists than conservatives. Yet those students blithely attend classes without a peep of protest.

We know what would happen if the tables were turned.

Bob Wiegand, Anaheim

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