Our state university was set to host a campus discussion on "Radicalism On College Campuses." It's long overdue, and of course a student there started petitioning to shut it down under the guise, of you guessed it, "hate speech."

The focus of the talk was set to be, irony of all ironies, free speech. The whiny undergrad, Adeel Ahmed, destined to be an underachiever, took a portion of one of the speaker's previous presentations out of context and submitted it to change.org to start a petition to prevent the woman from speaking.

The speaker's name is Lisa Daftari. She's a Rutgers graduate and proprietor of her own news website, called "The Foreign Desk." Daftari's parents were Iranian Jews — a group that saw many of its members flee their homeland to get away persecution by the Muslim majority.

Daftari defended herself vigorously and cited some of her many credentials in hopes of having a dialogue with students and perhaps bringing a different perspective than they're used to hearing. Unfortunately, this is likely a perspective that may not line up with what students are used to hearing in the echo chamber of leftist ideologues that dominate college campuses. Isn't college for learning new things and hearing from different perspectives? Not in today's university climate. You see an idea or person you disagree with, call them a racist and ban them from speaking. We see it happen over and over again around the country.

And now Rutgers has announced it's postponing the speech. Will it cancel it entirely? That's yet to be seen.

How about you try to listen before you try banning someone with more life experience and accomplishments than you? How about before you try and score a victory in shutting someone up, you go out and accomplish something. Do something. Build something. Build a resume of actual achievements and you can come back to your school and genuinely share some of your knowledge that you've gained by doing anything of substance in the real world.

In the meantime, while you're a student, why don't you shut up and try to actually learn something. Then, apologize to your parents for embarrassing them, and apologize to your future self for wasting time and money on being an emotional hemophiliac and a mindless, moronic, drone. Rutgers is not an institute of higher "feeling." It's an institution of higher learning. You don't get to shut someone down solely because what they say might offend your sensibilities.

So go listen to the woman's speech if and when it actually happens, and if you disagree with some of her points, challenge her and see where that goes. Daftari would be there as an expert, and you're there as a student, not to be the thought or speech police. The problem may be that no one has gotten in your face to tell you to shut up and listen. You're not always right just because you have a cause or a gripe with the world. You'll get a lot more out of your education and life itself if you listen and then challenge, rather than express your hatred of people whose ideas differ from yours by shutting them down. You are the guilty one here. You're guilty of hate non-speech, silencing those you disagree with because you hate their ideas.

Shut up. Grow up. And listen!

More from New Jersey 101.5:

More From New Jersey 101.5 FM