>
>On Thursday night, which many Shakespeare-aware e-mailers thoughtfully
>reminded me was the ides of March, I spoke in the Life Sciences Building at
>the University of California at Berkeley.
>
>Now I know what it's like to be Al Gore, specifically to have six armed
>guards escort one to the bathroom. A very odd experience. In fact, 30 armed
>police (both uniformed and undercover) were assigned by the university
>administration to the security detail for my speech, and I hired two
>additional guards myself. I am not in a position to judge how well the
>university authorities are able to assess the level of campus threats, but
>I was happy that every one of them was there. The evening ended when things
>began to get out of control. I, myself, took the decision to terminate the
>proceedings before anyone got hurt.
>
>The need for security, as I noted from the platform, was itself a horrific
>commentary on the state of our campuses. The intention of the 200
>protesters was to make certain ideas so toxic that one could discuss them
>only at one's peril -- moral or physical. As someone who spoke up in behalf
>of Marxist and communist ideas in the 1950s at Columbia with no such
>opposition, I can attest that McCarthyism was a tea party compared to this.
>
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