Debate turns into test of free speech. Some students failed.

Posted Jan 24, 2012 by Lindsay Peterson

Updated Jan 26, 2012 at 02:27 PM

Things got a little ugly last night outside the theater where the four GOP presidential candidates were debating.

But the mess offered up a far better lesson in democracy than what was going on inside the theater.

Early on people were having a good time outside, but the crowd grew and became restless as the night deepened, and people seemed to start feeding off the anger in the air.

It came from all sides.

Koran burner Terry Jones was there, and his group confronted protesters from Occupy Tampa and Students for a Democratic Society with shouts of “deport all illegals” and “impeach Obama.”

The students shouted back, “No more hate,” then graduated to some comments I can’t print.

It kept on and on, until someone grabbed a sign from a Jones supporter, ran away with it and tore it to bits, stomping on the pieces. Someone else snatched another and another. Finally the police stepped in and everyone sort of backed off.

The Jones contingent had clearly taunted the Occupy Tampa and SDS crowd, and some students were delighted to see people tear away the anti-gay, anti-immigrant signs.

“They should know they can’t come here and say that stuff,” one student said.

Others, however, were disgusted.

“The debate has barely started and people are going after each other,” senior Peter Murphy said. “That isn’t free speech.”

It was sort of a test.

In a world where you can customize your personal media to play only what you want to hear, where you can block out most everything else, it can be a shock to have someone yelling something you hate in your face.

And it can show you something about yourself.

Thank Terry Jones for this life lesson.