The 1981 TV drama “Skokie” not only gave Hollywood legend Danny Kaye his last major role;
The film, based on fact, showed the American Civil Liberties Union defending the worst possible free speech act: Nazis marching through a Chicago neighborhood filled with Holocaust survivors.
Defending noble speech is easy. It is more difficult to support offensive speech that would make any reasonable person cringe.
And more and more necessary.
That ACLU is no more. Once a fierce defender of free speech, he remained silent as big tech censorship spread across the West and cancel culture ran wild through our institutions. The group currently fights for “racial justice” and other far-left positions.
Pen pals with Hamas?
Will Penn America suffer a similar fate?
Founded in 1922, PEN America exists to “recognize the power of words to change the world and defend the freedom to write.” This is an excerpt from the organization’s “About Us” page.
That speaks volumes.
So is this part of its creed that is now anathema to the ACLU. “We celebrate creative expression and defend the freedoms that make it possible.”
The Atlantic’s blockbuster investigation into PEN America Revealing an organization on the verge of collapse. Unwilling to become a pro-Palestinian mouthpiece, the organization is struggling to survive, declaring Israel’s counterattack against Hamas after the Oct. 7 atrocity a “genocide.”
According to The Atlantic, PEN America just canceled its annual World Voices Festival, which aims to “encourage cross-cultural conversation and champion struggling artists.”
Too many artists withdrew from the event, accusing PEN of not wanting to politicize the organization against Israeli military attacks.
Group’s annual literary awards previously canceledeven after similar outrages caused nearly half of the candidates to withdraw their names.
Those critics are calling for further concessions. They are demanding the resignation of the group’s CEO, president and board of directors for refusing to embrace the pro-Palestinian cause.
An article in The Atlantic uncovers a surprising reason for the recent hostility to free expression. That is, its supporters tend to identify as conservative. And that doesn’t work with Team PEN.
“Book Ban” Banzle
Former Penn America leaders I spoke with echoed this sentiment, saying that the right’s relentless focus on threats to free speech has unwittingly politicized the issue and made it difficult to understand what Penn’s purpose is. I wonder if it created the current confusion.
Perhaps PEN America will continue to drag its feet, even less enthusiastic about free speech than before, or call it a day. In recent years, the group has rallied against so-called book bans, ignoring how many protests target young students and include graphic sexual content.
For the sake of that honor, I would like to say that PEN America did warn about the rise of ‘sensitive readers’ Censor the classic works of Roald Dahl, Agatha Christie, and Ian Fleming.
Today’s art world has moved aggressively to the left, and modern leftists no longer believe that free speech is worth defending. It has been attacked as “disinformation” or “hate speech”, political labels aimed at censoring non-woke opinions.
Consider the public apathy following the revelation of the Twitter files that conservative speech and contrarian views were being censored by the social media giant.
Today’s left injects politics into every part of culture, from sports to academia.Is it any wonder I see Drag Queen Story Hour readers requesting chants from their children? “Free Palestine”?
It was only a matter of time before PEN America became a target.
Message to the censor: “You’re fired.”
There is Several However, there is hope on the cultural front.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression has stepped up its efforts in recent years. Formed in 1999, the apolitical organization uses its influence and legal firepower to defend speech and protect professors who have been unfairly fired for their views.
This group’s media knowledge is important. FIRE’s “So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast” tackles difficult issues in a forum where discussion still dominates.
Group President and CEO Greg Lukianoff recently appeared in the powerful documentary “The Coddling of the American Mind,” based on the 2015 book he co-wrote with Jonathan Haidt. This film exposes the toxic arousal that pervades academia.
And we’re now seeing the results in battleground states like Columbia University and elsewhere.
Will Penn America uphold its founding principles and undermine its courage to fight back against its far-left enemies? Las Vegas’ odds don’t look promising in this regard.
This means joining the ACLU immediately, regardless of any demonstration of virtue.
In that case, let’s hope FIRE manages to continue the fight against true censorship. A struggle almost abandoned by the PEN, which is no longer more powerful than the Horde.
