How many speakers on the left have been shouted off stage by the right?

To The Daily Sun,

Professor E. Scott Cracraft rightly tells us that I have a right to respond to his column comparing the Trump movement to fascism in his April 7 letter in The Sun. But then he goes on to say, "in spite of the fact that Mr. Wiles would deny those who disagree with him the same rights he enjoys."

Well yes Mr. Cracraft, my "diatribes" would be "twisted" and "function in completely different dimensions of reality," if your statement had even a kernel of truth in it. Please Mr. Cracraft, I encourage you and all from the left to comb through my writings for any proof that flat out lie.

For those of you who actually read my letters, you all know that I literally scream from the rooftops that I lust for "unfettered free speech" and have actually used that phrase multiple times in recent letters.

Now I don't think I have ever quoted myself before, as that would seem a little bit elitist. But I hope you will all forgive me for doing it just this once. Here is what I said at the end of my response to Professor Cracraft: "So while the left continues to stifle free speech across campuses nationwide, thank God that we still have free speech on the pages of The Laconia Daily Sun. How else to know just how the left thinks of those of us not welcome into their elitist inner circle."

I think most intelligent people understood what I meant. The First Amendment was written to protect rough, coarse and abrasive speech. It was not needed to protect "nice, polite speech." I understand that and endorse it heartily. Apparently, the left does not understand that, which might explain why campuses continue to either shout speakers off the stage or prohibit speech from the right. Ayann Hirsi Ali, Michelle Malkin, Ann Coulter and countless hundreds of other folks from the right are treated like lepers from liberal academia.

Later on in the letter, he repeats his lie about me. "Mr. Wiles and others have often opposed the right to free speech of academics like myself, Leo Sandy and others." He claims that I have implied that "we progressives should be fired for advocating ideas with which they disagree." Speaking for myself, this is just another example of a baseless lie and smear from the left to discredit people who have an honest disagreement with how our country is being run. Please find the quote where I said that Mr. Cracraft. But don't waste too much time trying to find that which does not exist.

Nice try Scott, but your attempt to smear me with a lie will not only, not stifle my free speech, but I sincerely want you to continue to express your opinions in this newspaper. The right really wants to know what the left is thinking and therefore wants them to have "unfettered free speech." The left wants to clamp down on free speech to make it easier to promotes their liberty-sucking ideology. I can provide the professor with hundreds of examples instantly. I wonder how many he can offer up, even after hours of laborious research.

Hey Scott, how many speakers from the left have been shouted off of the stage by the right? How many Tea Party patriots have shouted leftist speakers off the stage? Okay yes, come to think of it, Bernie Sanders was shouted off of the stage. Oh wait, I believe it was the Black Lives Matter group that denied "unfettered free speech" to Senator Sanders.

Funny though, Scott never addressed the fact that I called him out on the lie he made up about Trump supporters acting like European fascists, when it was those trying to shout him off of the stage who were acting that way. Yes, it was the left who was again trying to stifle free speech. Oh and Scott, you already did invite me to be a guest speaker on you annual event honoring the Constitution a few years ago, and I did attend. I do thank you for that. Let's do try and have an honest discussion about the issues of the day, while using our critical thinking skills, when writing in this newspaper, and please refrain from making up stuff about me. It is really just not very professorial of you, is it?

Russ Wiles

Tilton