Youth for Western Civilization not so Extreme

Youth for Western Civilization (YWC) is a new, national, student-run organization with chapters cropping up at colleges and universities across the United States.  The group has caused mass controversy and pandemonium at nearly all of its events.  It has been labeled as extreme, a hate-group; it's members have been slandered as white supremacists, and yet the group continues to grow and gain support both on campus and off perhaps because its members offer substantive argument in place of a megaphone rant.

For all the shouting by liberal college groups, you would think the YWC was the collegiate equivalent of the KKK pushing to reinstate scholastic segregation, and ultimately remove all immigrants from the American educational landscape.  In reality, the groups proposals are fairly modest, or at least they would be if they were ever allowed to hold an event without childish interruptions by "tolerant" campus groups.  The group's fundamental goals are to provide a counter to the deep-rooted leftism on college campuses, and end what they call "radical muticulturalism."  The second is the source of most of the controversy surrounding the group and its membership, but even here their views are sensible, and relatively subdued.  As evidence, I point to the recent speech by ex-congressman Virgil Goode hosted by the University of North Carolina Chapter.  Goode argued illegal immigrants should not be granted in-state tuition at the University.

Given that the law says these illegals should be deported back to their home country, Goode's proposal is actually very modest.  He argued that if the University granted in-state tuition to illegals, then why shouldn't they provide the same benefits to students from other states or countries attending legally?  By granting illegals the same benefits as students who are actually from North Carolina, UNC administrators declare themselves the sole arbiters of any student's expense.  Apparently, many UNC students feel this is how it should be, and there was a small group at the event determined to silence Mr. Goode by any means possible

Now, after seven were arrested (six at Goode's speach and one at Tancredo's) in their attempts to silence the YWC, the protestors have the audacity to claim it is their rights that are being trampled.  They hide behind a misinterpretation of "free speech" in an attempt to dodge the consequences of their actions.  I certainly hope university officials will not cave to such requests from the true extremists who resorted to violence and slander to prevent a group from expressing its opinions.  Academics have long claimed to support and entertain opposing viewpoints; I think it's time they prove it.

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