Recently, seventh-year Carleton student Arun Smith tore down a free speech wall that, from what I understand, cost $150 to erect, paid for by the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms.
Fortunately, a second free speech wall was erected almost immediately. I say “fortunately” because I agree with Ian CoKehyeng, president of the Students for Liberty, on the purpose of this wall. Whenever someone mentions “free speech,” I think of the brave men who made the ultimate sacrifice in World War II to allow us the privilege of speaking our minds and that act trumps how “hurt” I would be when random people say things about me.
Granted, there are limits to what we can legally say in society, as defined by Section 1 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, as well as limits dictated by societal norms. For example, it really makes me cringe when anybody, regardless of skin colour, uses the “N” word. I feel that it’s an insult to everything that people like Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks have suffered and paved the way for. That’s just my opinion, and I leave it be when I hear it.
But I digress.
Does it make it right to forcefully tear down a wall without discussing it with the person who put it up in the first place? What’s wrong with writing an op-ed about it in the school newspaper? Bringing it up with CUSA? Talking about it on one of the campus radio shows? There is nothing wrong with any of those.
We live in a society where being “offended” is like being stabbed or shot. Well, here’s mine: I hate people who destroy other people’s property. I’ve said worse things than that before and had so many people tell me, “You can’t say that!” Well, guess what: I just did. Live with it, because I’m sure you’ll still be breathing, eating, and reading after that. What are you going to do? Get me expelled? Tell Mommy and Daddy so they do something about it?
Personally, I really couldn’t care what someone has to say about me because, as I mentioned before, they’re just words. You don’t like me? Don’t read this or any of my comments then. You have that choice given to you. I suffer from anxiety attacks, and you tell me to suck it up next time I have one? Dude, where’s that late bus? I’m Chinese, and you call me a chink? Good for you, I’m going to grab a bite to eat. I’m a dreaded Toronto Maple Leafs fan. 1967 jokes? Kid putting down the Xbox/Playstation controller after the Leafs win the Stanley Cup? Sure, whatever, I’m going back to studying — this book can’t read itself.
Do these things “hurt” me? No. Why would it? If anything, it tells me what kind of person who says that stuff is, and I avoid interacting with them for the rest of my life. After that, it’s done, I move on in my life because I know what kind of person I am, and I don’t require some yahoo telling me otherwise. Truth is, once you get your degree, the working world isn’t going to care what offends you or not.
Nowadays, the only thing that gets me worried to the point of being “hurt” is how I’m going to pay my rent and groceries in order to complete my studies here at Carleton, not about what some random person said about me. That is where my priorities lie.
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I’ll be out hunting and gathering.
— Abraham Lau,
third-year psychology and law
