The Chronicle: Colloquy: Responses

We have been taught to fear ideas. We blast the Professor Graglia from Texas because his research findings are not politically correct. We castigate Murray when he writes The Bell Curve. We want baseballer John Rocker to lose his employment because his ideas are not "right." Little wonder people fear Mr. Singer.

There was a time when we would invite him to the hall and debate - free and open. Today if we don't like the ideas we try to quash the debate and the thinker.

This should be our true fear - that we in the academy are losing our appetite for ideas, debate and discussion. It will lead to lost freedoms.

We must learn to support the ideas of those with whom we disagree. Mr. Singer should stand tall, proud, and safe and offer his insights (which I happen to reject). But that discourse is what makes this country great. We must recapture it.

: -- Michael E. Tomlin, Professor of Adult Education, University of Idaho (posted 3/8, 2 p.m., E.S.T.)

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