There is no denying that we live in an extremely divided country, and this fact becomes increasingly evident every day. Turn on the news, open social media or even just walk down the street, and you’ll see animosity and division at every turn. This isn’t a new development by any means, but I don’t think I’m alone in claiming that, as a country, we are probably the most divided we’ve been in decades.
On Oct. 20, our chapter of Students for Life at the University chalked across campus for Students for Life’s National Pro Life Chalk Day, with anti-abortion messaging. Our goal was to get people talking. Whether they agree with our messaging or not, the goal was to get our community into dialogue. It was defaced by 1:00 a.m., less than three hours after the chalkings were completed.
Some may say that pouring water on our chalk, scrubbing it out and scratching out the messaging was not silencing our free speech and that students have every right to do it. If we were in most public areas, that would be correct, however, the University has systems in place defending our right to free speech by protecting chalk written by anyone, for nearly any purpose, from defacement by other students. This kind of anti-free-speech thinking, from both sides, is what has led to the state of political dialogue that we see today.
Part of coming to a University, especially one as large as Alabama, is that you get to encounter diverse and differing political opinions. It should act as a microcosm of society at large. The issue is that productive conversations and discourse so rarely occur because both sides of the political spectrum are so ingrained in their views that they resort to silencing opponents, and when conversations do happen, they so quickly devolve into yelling matches and ad hominem insults.
Be open. Have respectful conversations. Engage in real dialogue. Free speech is the most important part of keeping our republic flourishing, so we should ensure that this freedom is kept alive.
Jack Walker is a sophomore studying psychology and is the president of Students for Life at UA, an anti-abortion organization.
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