I'm not angry with the Hampshire students, especially the African American students, who demanded that the show be closed down. American secondary schools do a very poor job in teaching young people the importance of free expression and the meaning of the First Amendment. Many of us first learned this lesson in college, and no college worth its salt fails to instill this most essential lesson. It is indeed sad that this distinction is not clear to the majority of the Hampshire College faculty. The defeat of the free-expression resolution makes it entirely inappropriate for the National Writers Union to hold a Delegates Assembly at Hampshire College.
Freedom of expression is one of our core principles, enunciated in our constitution.
The National Writers Union must not defend freedom of expression only when it is convenient to do so. The First Amendment does not need one more summer soldier or fair-weather friend. To hold a Delegates Assembly at Hampshire College while the defeat of the free-expression resolution is still on the books could jeopardize the reputation and the credibility of the National Writers Union. The Residual Chilling Effect Carolyn Arnold, the curator and Gallery Director, is the chief hero of the Montford incident. Montford told me that he believes that Arnold seriously risked losing her job by refusing to stop his show.