“Truth Is the Most Valuable Thing We Have.

“Truth Is the Most Valuable Thing We Have.

Let us economize it.” Mark Twain’s words could well become the motto of the University of California at Davis which, according to many media reports, has spent at least $175,000 to remove as much evidence as possible of the November, 2011 pepper-spraying of peaceful student protesters. A video of one campus police officer repeatedly spraying pepper into the faces of students seated on the ground, was seen by millions. It provided a vicious – but truthful – image that the university was desirous of having removed from public view. Removal of such evidence was defended on the grounds of eliminating “venomous rhetoric about UC Davis and the chancellor” [hate speech?] from the Internet.

One cannot help wondering whether UC-Davis – or even mainstream academia in general – might also be paying sizeable sums – perhaps in the way of faculty and administrative salaries – to sanitize college campuses from the expression of other truths that might prove embarrassing to the established order!

Perhaps German Chancellor Angela Merkel could learn a lesson from the UC-Davis officials. Merkel has been criticized for her recent decision that would pave the way for the criminal prosecution of a German comedian for his having made offensive remarks about the Turkish president.

Perhaps Merkel could take this practice further. Germany has long suffered from the image of Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist holocaust. Merkel might be able to overcome the “venomous rhetoric about” the Holocaust by cleaning up the evidentiary record of the wrongdoing!

Butler Shaffer