From: ecaxron@ariel.lerc.nasa.gov (Ron Graham)
Subject: INFO: pro-choice protestors deny freedom of speech
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: NASA Lewis Research Center
Date: 15 Oct 1992 10:41 EST  

PRO-LIFE LIBERAL SILENCED AGAIN
by David E. DeCosse

Free speech suffered a shameful setback on Oct. 2 in Manhattan at Cooper
Union's Great Hall, one of the renowned public forums in the nation.

For the second time in three months, Gov. Robert P. Casey of Pennsylvania
was prevented in New York City from giving a major public address laying
out his pro-life position.  In July, the Democratic Party leadership barred
the popular Democratic governor from speaking to the national convention.
A group of radical activists shouted the governor down as he attempted to
give a speech titled, "Can a Liberal be Pro-Life?"

The governor had been invited to speak by Cooper Union and the Village Voice
because he had been denied a platform at the convention.  His talk was to be
the first in a series devoted to airing controversial issues.

But controversy arose even before the governor arrived.  Staffers at the
pro-choice Village Voice were upset that the paper was giving a platform to
one of the most prominent pro-life politicians in the United States.  Betsy
Ho, an assistant editor at the paper, said that there had been no consul-
tation and consensus before the speech was announced.  But David Schneiderman,
the publisher, said he had invited the governor because of the Voice's long-
standing commitment to free speech.  "We're giving someone an opportunity to
speak," he said.  "It's not something you need a consensus on."

Unfortunately, the governor was never able to take advantage of the
opportunity.  After watching hecklers interrupt introductory comments by
Nat Hentoff, a Voice columnist, Gov. Casey stepped to the mike and began:
"I respect the First Amendment rights of everyone here -"

"Bull____!" someone yelled from the back of the hall, prompting loud applause
and laughter.

Bedlam was under way.  For the next 30 minutes about 100 people chanted, 
clapped and whistled.  The protesters were from, among other groups, ACT-UP,
Women's Health Action and Mobilization (WHAM), and a coalition to stop the
execution of Mumia Abu Jamal, who is on Pennsylvania's death row.  Many in
the rest of the crowd of 300 - both pro-lifers and pro-choicers - pleaded
with them to be quiet.  Scuffles broke out among parading hecklers and 
furious spectators there to listen.  The governor reportedly asked that the
police not remove anyone.  Later, by the time a Cooper Union official told
disruptive protestors that they would be removed, it was too late.

"The Democratic National Convention suspended the First Amendment, and 
tonight you did the same thing.  Congratulations," Casey said.  Then he
walked off the stage and headed straight for his car.  "What can you say?
What can you say?" he said on the way out.  "It's like a fascist crowd."

Back inside amid the continuing turmoil many troubling concerns were 
surfacing.  Some had to do with the disturbing, evasive logic of the
protestors.  Free speech for them appeared conditioned on agreement with
them, as in one protestor's cry:

	Give me my right to choose and I'll give you your right to speak!

(Of course, the protestor already *has* the right to choose, however 
embattled that right may appear to be.)  Free speech appeared dependent
on having a pro-choice speaker present to oppose the governor.  B. C.
Craig of ACT-UP said, "I'm pleased that Gov. Casey was not able to give
a speech in which he was not able to be challenged."  When asked why,
according to this standard, it would not then also have been necessary for
the governor to challenge the unopposed pro-choice lineup of speakers at
the Democratic convention, Craig replied: "Whoever said that conventions
are open forums?"

As the night ended, shame descended on the Great Hall.  Certainly the 
protest had violated the rights of the governor and of those there to hear
him and to argue with him.  But the silencing had also, in a sense, scarred
the venerable tradition of the Great Hall.  In 1860, Abraham Lincoln gave 
his famous "Might Makes Right" speech there.  Since then, a host of others
have made the hall a landmark of free speech.  On Oct. 2, it was bad enough
that for the second time the governor of one of the largest states could 
not speak on a crucial issue of the day.  It was worse that he was silenced
in a place echoing with the political discourse of our past.

(DeCosse is a free-lance writer based in New York City.)