Finally, someone speaking up about free speech at NJ's colleges

If you're at all familiar with what goes on at college campuses in New Jersey and around the country, you know that unless you're part of the "woke" leftist crowd, you'd better keep your mouth shut.

Countless speakers have been canceled or banned from campuses because their ideas don't mesh with the current orthodoxy prevalent on college campuses nationwide.

Assemblyman Gary Scharfenberger of Monmouth County is introducing a resolution calling on colleges and universities in New Jersey and all institutions of higher learning to protect freedom of expression as to ensure the Rights of Free Speech of all students.

These ideas and expressions aren't usually dangerous radical ideas. Quite the opposite. They're usually traditional values being expressed in speeches by highly credentialed, respectable people, by and large.

Say, for example, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who was forced to decline an invitation to speak at Rutgers back in 2014 after faculty and students protested her appearance there.

Was Condoleezza Rice a radical dangerous individual who could have corrupted the minds of our poor vulnerable young people at Rutgers? Far from it. But she was from the wrong political party and a member of the Bush administration, so that made her evil. That made whatever she had to say inappropriate for their campus.

College is supposed to be a place for an open exchange of ideas, not a place of exclusive due to your point of view.

This has gone on now for well over a decade and finally someone in our own state Legislature is at least speaking up about it and pointing it out.

Whether Assemblyman Scharfenberger's resolution will carry any weight is yet to be determined. At least parents and open-minded individuals who may know a little bit about our country and free speech can rest a little easier knowing that some of our elected officials are concerned and looking out for our rights.

Don't get too, comfortable though. There aren't many of them paying much attention to it, sadly.

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Dennis Malloy. Any opinions expressed are Dennis's own.