By: Paul A. Ibbetson

Don’t kill the messenger! You’ve heard that saying before and it has as much relevance today as in the past. Ages ago before the wondrous technologies for long distance communication were available; the means of sending messages between individuals over great distances fell to the responsibility of the humble messenger. The messenger, whether on foot or horseback would battle all assorted dangers, be it inclement weather, sickness, wolves, or rogue bandits to see his message delivered safely to its recipient. Unfortunately, surviving the successful delivery of a message was often the hardest part of the job. You see, sometimes people would become angry with a message that they did not wish to receive and the messenger was an easy outlet for this misguided anger.

Recently, I was an observer of a death of sorts of a fellow carrier of the conservative message of truth. A fellow radio associate and conservative columnist Chuck Armstrong, found himself at the end of the proverbial sword from his college newspaper publisher when his weekly opinion column contained comments about the violent aspects of the religion if Islam. Armstrong penned the column after researching the topic which included personal communications from well known scholar Robert Spencer. Not only was Armstrong’s column rejected but insinuations of racism were put forward. When Armstrong questioned the validity of rejecting an opinion piece on this topic, he was fired as a contributing columnist for the college newspaper.

Now you may be thinking that Chuck Armstrong was attending a liberal college where the conservative ideas and opinions are squelched as a matter of college policy, maybe at Berkley or the liberal breeding grounds of Columbia University, right? If you thought that was the case you would be way off. Would you be surprised if I said it was at Kansas State University? Yes that’s right, here in the heartland, the Bible belt, the place I like to call common sense central from the growing scourge of liberalism. Yes even here, to bring forth a message that asks people to think hard about a religion so relevant to current events in the nation doesn’t get you a debate, it gets you fired. I would leave it in the capable hands of the American people to read Armstrong’s article and make up their own minds if his message pains them because it’s off base, or if it only hurts because it’s painfully accurate?  

Unfortunately, I believe that Armstrong was forced to taste the steal of the Kansas State University Collegian because he violated the laws of political correctness. Yes, political correctness, the mental neutering of this country that not only day by day clouds the division between right and wrong, but breaks the will to question anything for fear that some group or organization may be offended. Most often these groups are liberals. Options were all this college newspaper had in this case. They could have collected an opposing opinion piece to Armstrong’s and ran them on the same page. They could have printed any disclaimer of their choosing before the article. Now here is a novel idea, they could have ran the article and let the readers decide and hold the author accountable through the usage of (letters to the editor) which the newspaper has every week. In the end, the Kansas State University Collegian decided to pass on all these options and to liquidate Armstrong for delivering a message that does not meet the liberal standard of political correctness. That message has been heard loud and clear.   

Paul A. Ibbetson is a published author and lecturer on the Patriot Act. He is a former Chief of Police of Cherryvale, Kansas, and member of the Montgomery County Drug Task Force. Paul received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Criminal Justice at Wichita State University, and is currently completing his PhD. in sociology at Kansas State University. He is the author of the book “Living Under The Patriot Act: Educating A Society” available at www.amazon.com, www.ibbetsonusa.com, and www.patriotactresearch.com. Paul welcomes questions or comments on this, or any other of his articles.