Young Americans for Liberty club hosts guest speaker

Lock Haven University and the Young Americans for Liberty club welcomed speaker, professor, and author Dr. Mike Adams on campus for his talk about fighting for the freedom of association and fully exercising everyone’s first amendment right among campuses.

He wanted to dispel misconceptions and set the facts straight across the country. He believes that calling attention to something you believe in for the betterment of society and the youth today can be helpful in the long run. Adams often related these issues with politics and the law to give a better sense on how one can defend any association that is being wronged for trying to silence the things that certain people want to be represented within certain groups.

He expressed that there are a lot of misconceptions and threats that make it difficult to get the right kind of exposure out there. Those misconceptions may give people the wrong idea about campus free speech, especially with political parties and their views on the situation. Leftists think that campus free speech is nothing and rightists think free speech is a battle against conservatives, but they’re both wrong according to Adams. He says that the real enemies are college administrators and the threats they pose to this idea of campuses and their students speaking up about their different ideas and beliefs.

Some laws and rules can be a threat to this initiative. For example, the first amendment doesn’t acknowledge or protect the freedom of association, even though it is technically an example of exercising your freedom of speech. Then, there are some who recognize the associations, but unfairly cut their funding as a form of resistance to what they believe.

The campus speech code is put in place to censor or silence what some people may perceive as “offensive speech” shown on campuses. This is also going against the first amendment. These are issues that need to be called out and have action taken against in order to show the masses of importance and significance in your beliefs that are being challenged and threatened. Adams said the most important thing to do to protect your cause is to expose the story of the wrongdoing against your association and get the public opinion. This is bad news against the people trying to shut you down and good exposure for your voice to be heard about the cause and may cause more people to help you fight in the long run.

You may disagree or agree with the points he makes, but he’s right that it’s all up to you, your opinions to stand by them, and take action in relation to it.