WWL's Newell Normand was fiery on Monday when talk turned to the pro-Palestinian protests that are sweeping college campuses, leading to nervous parents, disrupted classrooms and even arrests.
A listener texted and asked 'Why don't you ever have a pro-Palestinian speaker on your show? These students are American and they have the right to protest."
And Newell brought down the house with his answer, saying, "I never said that these kids did not have the right to protest. What I said was, is that they don't have the right to violate the law, and they don't have the right to violate the rules and the regulations of the university, which is exactly what they're doing."
The university and government is allowed to put time, place and manner restrictions on free speech, he added, but "what we have done now is we have let them run amok and do whatever it is that they want."
While some may think that school is out at the end of May and all of this will blow over in the summer, Newell says that belief is wrong. Why? Because the kids have learned that they can be in control.
"You give it to them. They're keeping it. And these are allegedly smart, smart people that are the presidents of these universities. And I simply ask, what do you fear? What do you fear? That students are going to say, well, I'm no longer going to go to Columbia (if you don't let me protest.) But for every student at Columbia, there's a thousand students that want to go to Columbia."
Newell also mused about how many of the students protesting were born in the United States, which had him wondering why we're importing haters.
"Why would we give any of these people a student visa to come to this country and disrupt the educational landscape that our citizens should be able to enjoy, open and freely ... They hate America. They hate Israel. They hate everyone who's ever invested a nickel with an Israeli company, an Israeli owned, family owned business or otherwise. Why would we reward them to set foot in the most incredible country in the world?" he said.
So instead of bowing to the pressure to do what the students want, maybe it's time to let them go, Newell said, and show them who's really the boss.
"The whole university system's gone amuck," he said.