Evicted from a free speech zone

The Korea Times

The Korea Times

Opinion

Casey Lartigue, Jr.

Evicted from a free speech zone

Posted : 2015-12-01 17:11

Updated : 2015-12-01 17:18

By Casey Lartigue, Jr.

During my mini-speaking tour to the United States last month, I had a speech at a law school moved off campus because 20 Chinese judges also visiting said they would feel "uncomfortable" with me speaking about North Korean refugees.

In a marketplace of ideas, the sensible thing would have been for those judges to have had their time and for me to have had mine with willing listeners on separate parts of the campus. The law school evicted me from the free speech zone, protecting the ears and sensitivities of those 20 Chinese judges.

Instead of speaking at an official event at the law school, I had dinner down the street with students who insisted that I had the right to be heard. The Chinese judges can cover their sensitive eyes and ears, but I will continue criticizing China for returning North Korean refugees to certain punishment or even execution.

As part of my tour, I spoke at Harvard University, one of the many campuses having protests and debates about race and the limits of free speech. Last week, portraits of black faculty members at the Harvard Law School were defaced with black tape. While some seek punishment, Harvard law professor Charles Ogletree, one of those who had his portrait defaced, expressed the need to be tolerant of intolerance: "I'm a firm believer in the First Amendment, even for speech that might be ugly or hateful. I don't think any of these actions are criminally prosecutable. I think they're freedoms of expression. Nothing was burned or damaged."

He added, on a personal level: "I don't like it, I'm very unhappy with it, but that happens in a free society. . . . I would like to confront and dialogue with those responsible."

Those Chinese judges who blocked me weren't interested in dialogue and don't understand that opposing opinions can be heard in a free society. As the old saying goes: "You have the right to tell me to go to hell, and I have the right not to go." I don't blame them for being uncomfortable with what I would have said.

Two days later, I protested, again, in front of the Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C., because the Chinese government was shipping nine North Korean refugees (like animals with no control over their own destiny) back to their owner, Kim Jong-Un. Those refugees had escaped to Vietnam, on their way to South Korea or another country unapproved of by the North Korean regime, so they will likely be punished more severely than those who escape to China seeking food or work. I won't remain silent about this.

Friends worry that I am being targeted. In the satirical book "Dear Reader, the unauthorized autobiography of Kim Jong-Il," author Michael Malice lists 30 people and organizations on the "Official Kim Jong-Il Enemies List." Among the late dictator's enemies: Mikhail Gorbachev, George W. Bush, Kim Young-sam, Nikita Khrushchev, and Casey Lartigue.

Casey Lartigue? Yes, your dear columnist is listed by Malice as one of the people on the late dictator's enemies list. When friends cite the list as "proof" that I am being targeted by the North Korean regime, I suggest they should stop watching spy thrillers. If the North Korean regime is familiar with me, I'm certainly not a high-profile target.

It has been the sympathizers, defenders, and accomplices of North Korea rather than the regime itself that have targeted me. They can continue convicting me in my absence on various Facebook groups and blogs. In his 1963 "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," Martin Luther King Jr., who was assassinated five years later, wrote: "Seldom do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas. If I sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would have little time for anything other than such correspondence in the course of the day, and I would have no time for constructive work."

A prominent journalist is the latest to inform me about propagandists for the regime targeting me. He wanted to know my response to their rants. I said: "Nothing. They complain when I answer them, they complain when I ignore them. I am delighted to compare my actions with their words." Some of the haters have pledged to destroy me, to bring me to my knees.

Despite their attacks, I'm still standing. I may occasionally have speeches canceled and lose other opportunities. I'm not finished doing the kinds of things that have attracted criticism from defenders of the North Korean regime and have people asking if I am being targeted. I didn't cross paths with the Chinese judges, but if I had, I would have kept in mind something attributed to Mother Teresa: "No matter who says what, you should accept it with a smile and do your own work."

The writer is the Director for International Relations at Freedom Factory Co. in Seoul and the Asia Outreach Fellow with the Atlas Network in Washington, D.C. He can be reached at: CJL@post.harvard.edu.