As a child I watched my fair share of historical movies that documented man-kind’s inability to get along, its recurring tendency towards mob mentality, and its succession of powerful ignoramuses. I used to watch these movies through the comfortable lense of “thank God we aren’t like that anymore”. Unfortunately, it seems that we still fail to grasp the concept of acceptance, we still tend toward mob mentality, and there are just as many ignoramuses in our ranks as ever before.

If you have been following the American news at all over the past couple of days you would have been hard pressed to avoid the news of Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s talk at Columbia University in New York. My first thought was “wow! what a great opportunity to engage this guy in dialog, before the powers that be turn the wheels towards war”. I figured that the media, as life-time advocates of free speech would agree. I was wrong.

All anyone* in the U.S. has been talking about since this announcement is how irresponsible this is of the University to allow this “holocaust denier” to speak at such a prestigious university. There were protests, and many were calling on the University to cancel the talk. What were they afraid of? Were they afraid that people would listen to his talk, then start walking around believing that the holocaust never happened? Or were they afraid that he might actually make some sense and thwart the media’s efforts to depict him as a monster? If this is the case, then their fears came true on this day. Ahmadinejad came across as a man who was trying to do the best thing for his country. He did not sound like a monster. He did not sound insane. The President of the University, Lee Bollinger, came across as star spangled bully; choosing pat himself on the back for his demonstration of free speech while introducing Ahmadinejad as an “evil” man and a “petty and cruel dictator”.

Ahmadinejad called it right when he noted that Bollinger seemed to be attempting to vaccinate the audience against Ahmadinejad’s evil ideas even before he had an opportunity to say one word. There was nothing gracious about this introduction. Perhaps I expect too much from an Ivy League university. I would expect that they would show respect for a speaker that they have invited to speak at their institution – no matter who that speaker is. A few minutes into Ahmadinejad’s address, CNN cut away to interview their Arabic correspondent for his opinion of things “so far”. When the correspondent suggested that Bollinger had issued a “frontal and personal assault” on the Iranian president during the introduction, he was cut off immediately by both news anchors arguing that “don’t you think he was justified in doing this”. I could almost hear the lynch mob forming behind the cameras if the correspondent had even insinuated that this attack was unjustified.

In my opinion, Lee Bollinger embarrassed himself and the American people by exposing his fear of free speech while hypocritically claiming to be a proponent of it. He served to incite hatred and increase tensions rather than open new dialogue.

As for Ahmadinejad’s talk. There were some comical portions, like the part where he denied the existence of homosexuals in Iran.

I think it is important for all of us to watch the climate of hate as it slowly engulfs our society. After this talk, I am franky more scared of the potential of America’s “hate” than I am of Iran’s “evil”.