January 1998
First Word
In an Op-Ed piece in The New York Times, columnist Anthony Lewis attacked the threatening wave of censorship on campus. Speaking of a proposed curb on free speech at the University of Massachusetts, Lewis pointed out that the proposed ban on speech that offends on the basis of "race, color, national or ethnic origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, religion, mental status, veteran status or disability" would be a step backward. He adds that the college's graduate student union had suggested still other curbs on speech, including those likely to offend on the basis of "citizenship, culture, HIV status, language, parental status, political affiliation or belief and pregnancy status" -- a seeming compendium of all humankind. "Orwell comes to mind as one reads this proposal," says Lewis. "It would create a totalitarian atmosphere in which everyone would have to guard his tongue all the time lest he say something that someone might find offensive..."
-- Martin L. Gross, The End of Sanity (Avon Books, 1997)
