The lawmakers idea is not new (firing the prof). they had the same ideas in Salem Mass. when they put old ladies to death on the word of children. let the local people decide.Do I really need to list the times that was a bad idea? the idea that no one should be affended is ridicules.

The collective has a need to hear even things that they might find offensive.

If you don't like what you are hearing don't listen. If you don't like the things you see, don't look.

The unique quality of "democracy" is that you don't have to do things you find offensive.

Get a grip. Relax. Academia is academia. Get over it.

Robert Ruiz

San Antonio, TX

As happy as I am, in general, with Justice Talking, I find it hard to imagine how the following points were nor foregrounded in Sunday's (11 January) show: 1) The first amendment of the US Constitution can't be abrogated by a state legislature, however zealously it seeks to protect the "local ideologies" that send it to the State House. American librarians have made this very clear in their splendid opposition to the American Patriots Act. 2) Law can never shape what's most valuable about the academic forum: intellectual courage requires us to endure "offensive" speech through acts of character and tolerance, as long as such speech isn't patently intended to deprive others of justice or life. The license of the free academy is earned by teachers who can support their students in the pursuit of knowledge, even if at times uncomfortable knowledge, by balancing off the competitive demands of two dicta: the golden rule, and Socrates's assertion that "The unexamined life is not worth living." The vigor of liberal education will not be sustained by lawmakers, especially in this age of sound-bites and polls, but by teachers who have learned to present the hardest of questions to their students, while assuring them that they are respected and revered. Respected and revered for the growth that they are willing to undergo, through sometimes uncomfortable struggles, for the good of their own souls and for the good of their communities.