The “Islam is of the Devil” people found themselves on Turlington Plaza Monday, and they got just what they wanted – attention. Some people come to Turlingon wanting to have conversations, others just want to inflame and hear the sound of their own voices.
We hate walking through Turlington Plaza, almost late for class and getting accosted by people when we’re clearly wearing our iPod headphones — the universal symbol for “Don’t bother me.”
But we get even more incensed when we have to sidestep the huge crowd of people congregating around someone yelling about whatever sin we’ve committed in the past 10 minutes and the college student with whom he or she is arguing at max volume.
Please understand, we know a “free speech zone” doesn’t mean you only get to hear what you want to hear.
Turlington is an area for everyone to say how he or she feels, and if we squabble with that, we’re defeating the purpose.
But here’s the deal: If you see someone on the plaza exercising his or her free speech rights and you want to debate, go right ahead.
But screaming from the top of the staircase or across the plaza will not help the situation. Yelling doesn’t make your point any more valid. Talking loudest is not equivalent to being right.
Debate is one thing. Thursday we saw a man with a sign strapped to his chest reading “You need Jesus; it’s hell without him” and prepared for the worst.
But when two students came up to him, they all spoke at a normal volume, which did not disturb the people around them. However, a woman across the plaza began yelling and walking in circles while a student some 10 yards away shouted back, “Shut up! Go home!”
We got out of there before a giant circle could form.
Don’t get us wrong. We think these people have every right to be here. We’ll fight to protect more extreme speech — it gives more First Amendment room for reasonable discourse.
It’s just that this is an institution of higher learning. Part of UF’s mission should be to provide a place where ideas can be intelligently discussed, debated and critiqued. We wish these guests on our campus — who have every right to be here — would try to fit in and contribute to that kind of environment.
Not only would this approach lead to a less hostile environment on the plaza, but we’re guessing students would actually get more out of these messages if they were presented in a way that didn’t cause them to tune out.
We can’t implore the screamers to change their ways; that’s what they come here to do. But the students of the school should understand that screaming back won’t deter them. If anything, they’ll just yell louder. Healthy debate and discourse is the nice side of the free speech zone, but don’t make the bad side worse.
When a group of students forms a circle around a shouting match, they’re not looking for intelligent comebacks, and they’re not looking for answers.
They’re merely watching to see what will happen, and that doesn’t make you look any better than your opponent.
We can’t agree with everything being said on Turlington Plaza, but it’s easy to tell the difference between people who want to converse, and even the people who want to argue, and those who just want to plant their feet on the ground and holler.
We feel that the best way to deal with these individuals is to avoid adding fuel to the fire and just turn up your iPods.
