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Let Nazi speakDaniel Nowak, acting vice-president for student affairs, is expected to announce today whether Joe Tommasi, an American Nazi lieutenant, will be allowed to speak April 26 on campus. It was learned earlier this week that Nowak had talked with President John Hubbard about Tommasi’s scheduled appearance and that Hubbard might cancel Tommasi's speech in Bovard Auditorium due to “security risks—the only reason for which a speech can be called off.The cancellation of Tommasi’s appearance would be a dangerous move against free speech on this campus and would also set an ugly precedent. No speaker, icluding Jerry Rubin, an almost equally rabid leftist as Tommasi is a fanatical rightist has been cancelled in USC’s recent history. A cancellation of the Nazi’s speech would change all that. The administration would ftnd it easier to cancel future speakers on grounds of security.The administration once again must give up its concept of being the students' substitute parents, who must protect their wards from the real world. Some here objected against Tommasi because of his supposed ability to spread fanaticism and violence. Surely USC has enough confidence in its students' intelligence that It won’t expect them to be brainwashed by Tommasi’s simple-minded. one-dimensional fascism. In fact, it could show students how dangerous and frightening Nazism was and still can be.The actual need for security itself is no important consideration of course, but it does not seem likely that violence will erupt, whether the Jewish Defense League shows up to demonstrate against Tommasi or not—and it probably would. The JDL and the Nazis can't afford violent confrontations in anything but spoken words at present; besides, security precautions already taken for the speech seem thorough enough to avoid any upset.But the most important consideration, again, is that a cancellation would damage the right to free speech here on campus. A Free Trojan editorial this Monday said that a gun-toting, hate-monger grunt head” like Tommasi should not be allowed on campus. This is the same newspaper that was banned from campus last year because of the politics it supported. Now, after fighting back for its status, the Free Trojan is asking that another receive the same fate it rebelled against.AU of us must remember that free speech is not a privilege, something to be handed out to whomever we feel deserves it. It’s a right, and even Joe Tommasi deserves it.
Newspaper Details
Los Angeles Southern California University Daily Trojan
Los Angeles, California, US
Fri, Apr 14, 1972
Page 7
Full Page
Clipped by
Alex K.
NA, 20 May 2025
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