hello, free speech?

January 30, 2002

Tattletales for an Open Society

An Open Letter to Dr. Lynne Cheney and Senator Joseph Lieberman (from Martin Sherwin)

While ACTA's report does not have the cachet of President Nixon's "Enemies List," nor the intimidating force (yet?) of Senator Joseph McCarthy's too-numerous-to-list lists, as an American historian I am naturally interested in this project, and I have decided to offer your organization my full cooperation.

Therefore, as an example to my colleagues, I am stepping forward to name a name, my own--Martin J. Sherwin, the Walter S. Dickson Professor of English and American History at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts--and to tattle on myself.

If you don't remember ACTA "Defending Civilization" accussed university professors of being 'un-American' by having the gall to disagree with the administration. Hello, free speech? Professor Sherwin was one of the best professors I had at Tufts. His book A World Destroyed happens to be good, too.