To the editor:

KU’s decision to censor (by moving) artwork featuring what appears to be a paint-spattered American flag represents a stunning retreat from the school’s mission. Furthermore, the elected officials who first demanded the censorship demonstrate a profound distrust in the Constitution and civil liberty.

Universities exist to produce and disseminate knowledge. Advancing that mission depends on free speech. Faculty and students must be free to test competing ideas through a process of open, reasoned dialogue that shuns preordained ideological outcomes. Hanna Holborn Gray put it best: “Education should not be intended to make people comfortable, it is meant to make them think.”

Likewise, the First Amendment does not exist to protect popular speech. It exists to protect that expression most likely to stir controversy. It guarantees that speech by Turning Point USA enjoys the same protection as speech by Young Democrats. While some find artistic uses of the flag offensive, this is not a fault of the First Amendment. Like free speech, liberty to use the flag in art embodies a higher patriotism that no piece of cloth can match–it shows that the American experiment is working.

Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart described censorship as “society’s lack of confidence in itself.” In this case, I urge KU and state leaders to prove that they have as much confidence in the people of Kansas as I do. Restore the flag.

Joseph Yockey,

Iowa City