Free Thought on Campus! film at eleven
I'm always surprised by the occasional breakout of free expression on college campuses (or "campii" as we say 'round here). What follows isn't exactly a challenge to the academic world's group hug of designerless Darwinism, but you take what you can get.
What happened was that several college presidents, including Ohio State's, signed a petition calling for debate about lowering the drinking age from 21 to 19. Now there's a man-dog-bites story. It surely must show that the drinking age on campuses has not been working.
But free expression usually comes with a price - witness poor Larry Summers of Harvard - and MADD let no beer cans collect under their feet before going for the jugular, i.e. the collegiate bottom line, in suggesting that parents direct their children away from colleges where the president has signed a petition calling for talk about lowering the drinking age. Wow. Just signing a petition to call for a debate and MADD plays the thought-stopping trump card. They sure know how to play the game.
The game is about money. Which is how the drinking age came down in the first place. The Federales came in and said, "you wanna our money, you raise your age." The states, one-by-one complied. All fifty. What was said of some women could be said of the states: "we've established what you are, now we're just haggling over price."
Ah but easy for you to say, you say. You're not in charge of a state budget. True, and you do have to pick your battles. But it is discouraging to see the flouting of the principle of subsidiarity and to see another example of the steady erosion of state and local power.
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