University of Notre Dame president Father John Jenkins has spproved performances of the lefty agitprop play The Vagaina Monologues at UND and conservative talk-show host Hugh Hewitt are upset. Hewitt doesn’t think that lefty agitprop has a place at Notre Dame. It’s not as if there aren’t plenty of other places where you can go to see the Vagina Monologues.
Father Jenkins justified his action on the following grounds:
"My decision on this matter,” Father Jenkins said, “arises from a conviction that it is an indispensable part of the mission of a Catholic university to provide a forum in which multiple viewpoints are debated in reasoned and respectful exchange—always in dialogue with faith and the Catholic tradition—even around highly controversial topics.
I agree. The Vagina Monologues is, no doubt, a foolish and a hateful piece of work. But we conservatives must never deny lefties the right to be heard. What we can and must insist upon is our right to be heard.
That is the great issue upon which conservatives should plant our flag. Too often we cringe before the bullying of the lefties and do not oppose their folly and their bile with sufficient vigor.
David Allen White, Shakespeare scholar issued the following challenge to Notre Dame on the the Hugh Hewitt Show.
I will issue a challenge to Notre Dame, okay? I do it publicly. I do it on the air. I have taught Shakespeare at the Naval Academy for 27 years... Will Notre Dame let me come and lecture on Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, which presents a contradictory view to the Vagina Monologues? Public challenge ’“ academic freedom ’“ will they bring in a Shakespeare scholar to talk about one of Shakespeare’s plays, to give an opposing point of view?
Maybe Notre Dame will accept the challenge. But what about the 1,001 other colleges in America? Would they allow the voice of Shakespeare, Dead White Male, to compete with traditionally marginalized progressive voices of the Vagina Monologues? I don’t think so.
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