Although I’ve thrown my fair share of rocks at the tactics of certain groups on campus, I do not hide my hand, nor do I present my commentary as value neutral and objective. More often than not, there are not two sides to every question – there are several. The best method to generate meaningful dialogue involves stirring up the pot and provoking thought. However, we attend a University which encourages and enforces interests which run counter to thought-provoking conversations among its student body.

The proud and refined University of Alabama does not invite discourse which disrupts the visions of a “safe” learning environment. Our university will not promote demonstrations that allow students to engage in critical and complex dialogue. “Safe” and “inoffensive” learning at our university translates to sanitized and non-threatening knowledge. Yet, I contend that knowledge never was, nor is, value neutral or non-threatening.

The language we use to construct meaning, frame opinions and even surround images has power and history. To learn anything devoid of context is to learn nothing. Accordingly, I am not offended by the published images of the Bama Students for Life poster. I am not moved by the site of an aborted fetus, because I do not feel an abortion is an action of which a woman should be ashamed. Especially when I examine the complex and difficult knowledge surrounding the issue.

BSFL disseminates these images to encourage shame, guilt and discrimination. They want women who choose to end a pregnancy to feel disgusted and inhuman. More importantly, they want us to view these women as inhuman criminals and to view ourselves as inhuman lest we impose our beliefs on others and end the right to choice. I reject their imposition and definitely reject the moral authority they have appropriated to themselves. Accordingly, their demonstrations do not bother me or disrupt the consumption of my sandwich.

To some, this may sound cold, but I value the need to grapple with complex issues of greater importance than personal discomfort resulting from such thinking. Last year, when BSFL plastered campus with posters comparing abortion to genocide and the holocaust, I was disgusted and offended. Such claims devalue the experiences and warp the history and context of these events.

However, then and now, I will defend their right to do so. I reserve the right to reject the misinformed demagogue, but I do not need to silence them. Perhaps we should consider why our university does.

Forces of social conditioning at our university operate to maintain the status quo. We do not want students rallying around causes and engaging in open dialogue contrary to dominant interests. In order to recruit students, fund programs and project a stellar image, our university ably works to disrupt critical perspectives.

We attend a predominantly white, Southern, Christian and wealthy university. Ideas perceived as radical are not part of the image we want to build as an institution. The interests that shape these groups also shape the values and practices of our school. More importantly, these interests often oppose groups who think with complexity.

Although anti-abortion stances in no way run counter to the interests of the majority in this state, such tactics cannot be tolerated at our university, because then our institution fosters activism. Now, I personally do not believe BSFL engages in complex thinking, but to deny voice to even the most outrageous and irritating groups is to reject the very foundations and purpose of education.

We should not attend this institution to learn an isolated set of neutral facts and skills which will ensure a spot in the marketplace. We should attend this institution to learn to see ourselves as part of this world and our place within it. We should learn to examine our identities, our culture and our systems to learn how we can create a just and nuanced society dedicated to creating a better world for our successors.

I view a campus in which students rally and protest, interrogate and challenge assumptions as a sure sign that students are thinking and willing to act on what they learn. We should not fear noise. Silence is much more grotesque.

John Speer is a graduate student in secondary education. His column runs weekly.