On Paulin

I sincerely hope you are not preaching to the choir, Emmett. I remember when the Review editorialized on Dartmouth’s “Sex Series” two years ago, our position was that a serious academic institution should not be hosting lectures called “Cunt: A Declaration of Independence.” Nor, the Review wrote on another occasion, should the academy tolerate dishonest scholarship, such as Holocaust denial and I, Rigoberta Menchu, in the interest of academic freedom — a doctrine which aims to safeguard the quest for truth, not to allow nutjobs to prattle on about their lunatic political causes. A poetry reading by Tom Paulin, who, among other things, advocates the murder of Jews in Israel, also falls under the general category of “insane crap that shouldn’t pass for respectable scholarship.” Harvard does not need to ban all discussion of Paulin’s work from campus, but no academic institution can sponsor and promote his appearance within its walls and still be taken seriously or considered respectable.