At least he has a fun name to say

Nothing like a dictator to incite the American public.

Our Iranian friend, President Ahmadinejad, made his appearance today at Columbia University. There seem to be people on both sides of the fence, with most Americans protesting his invitation to speak at the university.

I'm a bit torn on the subject. On the one hand, what he has done - and what he does - is despicable. On the other hand, we should allow ourselves to hear what he has to say. Freedom of speech has nothing to do with it, per se. It's more of the opportunity to hear differing perspectives and to open our minds to what is out in the world.

I won't go into all the details, but back when I was at the Old Gold and Black at Wake (the student newspaper), an advertising insert went into the paper. It turned out to be a pamphlet called "The Revisionist" which said, in a nutshell, that the Holocaust was a figment of the Jewish imagination. Some students on campus were outraged (most didn't care either way, unfortunately) and censored the insert.

But here was the perfect opportunity to talk about that. To talk about revisionism and what it means in history. To open our eyes to beliefs that exist beyond our limited view of the world and to understand what they are and why we should disagree. Should we give ignorance, give evil a chance to be studied and talked about? Yes. Simply because ignorance and evil exist and without knowing the foundation of why it exists or what the underlying beliefs are, then we can never attack it at the core and disband it forever.

I think Ahmadinejad should have been given the opportunity to speak. I want to know what he's all about and to understand that foundation of his evil regime. Because then we can tear it apart, bit by bit, and educate others on why it is wrong. And only by that education can we perhaps prevent another dictator like him from doing the same thing.

Knowledge is such a powerful instrument. But to use it to our greatest advantage means that sometimes we have to hear what we don't want to hear, open the wounds and allow ourselves to be pained in order to stem the infusion of hate and outwit the spread of ignorance.