Protest

To the Editors of the Crimson:

I think Law School Assistant Professor Randall Kennedy misdirects his energy, if The Crimson accurately reported remarks he made in a public talk April 30. He reportedly applauded students who physically disrupted a speech by a South African official and said the students should not have been punished.

I know of no one who has anything but contempt for South Africa's apartheid regime. But freedom to express one's ideas would be ephemeral if it applied only to popular, majoritarian views.

By blocking exits that otherwise would have been open to the South African speaker, the students whom Professor Kennedy praises commited an act of force that conflicts with the spirit of peaceful, civil disobedience and with Harvard's stated standards of conduct, which emphasize "freedom from personal force...and freedom of movement."

Like Professor Kennedy, I see no reason why a student group should invite South African officials to Harvard, and I agree that the Conservative Club may be making a political statement when it does so. But the best response to one speaker's bad ideas is better ideas from other speakers. David Snouffer, 2L