According to Greek mythology, Hephaestus, the presumed son of
Zeus, attempted to rape Athena, the virginal goddess of both
wisdom and justice. During the 16th century, the Pope
figuratively completed the abhorrent act which Hephaestus merely
attempted. Is Athena under threat today from yet another invasion
of her chastity?
On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther, of the Universität
Wittenberg, nailed his famous 95 theses to the doors of the
Castle Church in Wittenburg. While he found considerable public
support for his work, it was suppressed by academia as well as by
the Church. In 1520, a Papal Bull was issued excommunicating him,
which Luther subsequently burned in public. He appeared at the
Imperial Diet in Worms on April 16, 1521, and the Wormser
Edikt was henceforth issued, establishing a death warrant for
the founder of what would later be called the Reformation.
Around 1514 or 1515, Nicolaus Copernicus published
Commentariolus, which established for the first time that
the earth was not the center of the universe. In 1543, his life
work was detailed in De revolutionibus orbium coelestium. Again,
the Universität Wittenberg becomes important, as Joachim
Rheticus, an astronomy and mathematics professor there, was
attributed to having persuaded Copernicus to publish this
important work. In 1600, one of the followers of Copernicus,
Giodano Bruno, was executed. As we all remember learning, in 1633
Galileo Galilei was forced to recant his view of Copernicanism.
Galileo spent the remaining eight years of his life under house
arrest.
In August of 2003, the Alabama Scholars
Association (ASA) launched a newspaper, the Alabama
Observer. To date, professors have met incredible resistance,
including threat of force, in their attempt to distribute the
publication on Alabama campuses. The ASA is the state affiliate
of the National Association of Scholars, which serves as an
advocate for freedom and reason on American campuses. Most of the
writers for the Alabama Observer are professors within the
University of Alabama system.
Like the Universität Wittenberg, the University of
Alabama (UA) system is supposed to be a haven for the free and
open exchange of ideas. As evidence that the Observer is
committed to such enterprise, UA anthropology professor and
newspaper editor Charles Nuckolls stated, "We strive to
provide access to all points of view whether they differ from
ours or not."
Luther, Copernicus, Bruno, and Galileo are not the only
scholars to be persecuted, as this sort of activity has recently
been resurrected throughout Alabama. UA history professor and ASA
President David Beito wrote, "For the past month, officials
of the University of Alabama have systematically subjected the UA
Chapter of the Alabama Scholars Association to intense
harassment, censorship, and selective denial of its free speech
rights to use the campus mail in the same manner as other duly
recognized faculty organizations."
According to Beito and other sources, the University is
attempting to control the use of campus mailing fees and official
mail boxes as tactics used to discourage the activities of the
ASA. In one recent event, law professor David Bernstein of George
Mason University, was scheduled to speak on the UA campus. Beito
attempted to use the normal Campus Mail system to distribute
flyers announcing the event. The ASA paid the fee, but dispersion
of the flyers was initially ruled against. After losing an ASA
appeal of the policy, the announcements were delivered by UA at
the final moment, albeit too late to reasonably announce
Bernstein’s speech.
In a related event, mathematics professor Stephen Dow was
ordered to cease distribution of the paper in mailboxes at the
UA-Huntsville campus under threat of being physically removed
from the premises. Perhaps Beito and Dow would do well to
purchase some nails in order to use Luther’s mechanism of
distribution in the future.
Again, as with the heinous Wittenberg Gang, the university
system is not the only tool used to persecute those with unique,
original, alternate, or unpopular views. Government coercion was
used then; it still is today.
After running for governor as the Libertarian Party candidate
in 2002, the contract of Auburn University economics professor
John Sophocleus was conveniently not renewed. Like the ASA and
the Alabama Observer, Sophocleus was often critical of
both the government and the state school system. Auburn officials
denied that Sophocleus’ candidacy had anything to do with
their decision. Former head of the Auburn University Department
of Economics David Laband publicly disputed the dismissal with
"Fact: in my 5 years as department head, Mr. Sophocleus was
easily the best instructor at the principles level EVERY
year."
Talk show host and UA-Birmingham professor of medicine Russ Fine has
been receiving his reprisals lately, too. Fine recently
contributed material to the Observer, and is loudly
critical of the state government as well as the public education
system on the popular Russ and Dee Fine Radio Show. According to
confidential embedded sources, presumably in the Governor’s
office, the Fines are listed prominently on Governor
Riley’s enemy list.
The patterns used in Europe to suppress heresy while still in
a genetic state are very similar to what occurs in Alabama today.
The truly frightening question is which mechanisms will next be
used in order to stifle the menacing voices of reason and
change?
The original rape attempt of Athena occurred when she visited
Hephaestus in order to purchase arms from him. As the story goes,
she was able to protect herself from his perfidious attempts by
stabbing him with a spear. A modern parallel displays to us that
the constitutionally-protected rights of free speech and a free
press are the weapons which best protect the people from rape of
a different variety. That our universities would deprive us of
these weapons is macabre, at best.
Stephen P.
Gordon is a freelance writer and the Vice Chair of the Libertarian Party of
Alabama.
