Friday, March 11, 2011

I Thank Horowitz, Horowitz Thanks Us

Last night, David Horowitz spoke at Brooklyn College. I served as the faculty sponsor and introduced him to the audience.  The audience was a mixture of sympathetic listeners and anti-Horowitz protesters.  I wrote a blog about what occurred on the National Association of Scholars site.  As well, American Rattlesnake describes the events.  Pamela Hall is working on posting a video, which you will find interesting. 

I had written David a thank you letter to which he graciously responded:

Dear Mitchell,

   Thank you. I would like to use this email to convey my gratitude to all of you who helped make this possible and especially to Jeffrey Wiesenfeld who allowed us to have  a civilized environment in which to express our point of view and who taught the Jewish students that if they will stand up for themselves others will step in to stand up for them too. 

   I have written an account of what happened and will send you all a copy and post it on the web as well.

David

On Mar 10, 2011, at 10:22 PM, Mitchell wrote:

Dear David:

I did not appreciate the sacrifices to which you have voluntarily subjected yourself until I saw the hate-filled protesters in last night’s audience. Since I am used to classrooms where small amounts of incivility are out of place, hearing the anger that you have chosen to expose impresses me.   Your work is critical to the nation’s future.  Without you, the incipient totalitarianism in America’s universities would avoid the light of publicity.

Everyone in our circle is most appreciative of your coming to Brooklyn College.  We cannot thank you enough.  As well, we thank you on behalf of future Americans who will benefit from your untiring efforts.

Sincerely,

Mitchell Langbert
Associate Professor
Brooklyn College

3 comments:

Gerard said...

I was pleased to be able to attend the speech. Thank you for having the courage to sponsor David Horowitz's lecture. You and Yosef are a credit to Brooklyn College.

Mitchell Langbert said...

Andre-- I am linking to the video now. Indoctrinate U is a great film. I saw its opening at the Soho film festival about 3 1/2 years ago and blog about it:

http://mitchell-langbert.blogspot.com/2007/08/premiere-of-evan-coyne-maloneys.html

Geard said...

I completely agree. That's a great documentary, and deeply illuminating of the current campus culture. I watched one of the screenings with the director, Evan Coyne Maloney, and was astonished by the lengths to which administrators went to squelch his ability to film.