Free speech issue at the University of Illinois

Once again, my alma mater is in the news. This story comes courtesy of FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.

In this oh-so-touchy world, a "threat" made on a Facebook site that no one could possibly take seriously, University of Illinois Chancellor Richard Herman sent an e-mail to the students and faculty of the Urbana-Champaign campus that he "can not and will not tolerate such violent threats. The University will take all legal and disciplinary actions available in response to the threatening messages."

Here is that that "threatening" Facebook post:

Apparently the leader of this movement is of Sioux descent … the Sioux are the ones that killed off the Illini indians [sic], so she’s just trying to finish what her ancestors started. I say we throw a tomohawk [sic] into her face.

Actually, it was the Iroquois tribe, with help from European diseases, that decimated the Illini.

And just where does one find a tomahawk?

Oh, ease up, Chancellor Herman. Or I'll have to use my catapult--with a cow--against you.

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