I am not a fan of the conservative columnist Ann Coulter. I could never be a fan of someone who wrote, “We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity,” days after the 9/11 attacks.
I also doubt I could ever like someone who says it would be better if women could not vote, because then Republicans would always win elections, something else Coulter has said. In fact, I truly think Coulter is a despicable human being.
However, strangely enough, I also think it is imperative she be allowed to speak.
Earlier in April 2017, Coulter was scheduled to speak at U.C. Berkeley for a conservative group on campus.
Protests broke out over the event, and it was canceled due to safety concerns, because campus security could not guarantee Coulter’s safety. The event was never properly rescheduled, so Coulter was unable give her speech, though it was read by a VICE editor later.
This precedent is dangerous. Free speech is an integral part of education, and if society begins to think otherwise, we lose what makes America special and what makes our colleges special.
College is meant to be a “marketplace of ideas,” and there must be bad merchandize in the marketplace for us to understand the importance of the good ideas.
Colleges are supposed to be a place where our thoughts and beliefs are challenged, and, maybe, our perspectives change based on new information we did not know before.
If this diversity of thought is taken away, all that remains is an echo chamber—an endless white noise of stale, unchanging discourse.
To reuse the marketplace analogy, we would have only one fruit and would never experience all the flavors there are in life.
Some may say not all voices need to be heard. After all, some voices are racist, sexist, classist and bigoted, reducing debate to defending one’s right to be able to speak.
Ulrich Baer, a professor at New York University, suggests free speech has, will and must evolve with the times.
Pointing to the massive increase in ethnic, religious and class diversity on campus, Baer says we must reevaluate what is proper free speech in a world so entirely different than the world just 30 years ago.       
However, if the time ever comes when society changes the definition of free speech, it will be when society loses the right.
It is true America has just recently given many minorities the opportunity to go to college, and their voices should be heard just as equally as others. It is true we should not let just any racist, sexist, classist or bigoted man or woman off the street give a speech at a university.
A university is an academic place, and therefore, I think any speaker should have some sort of academic value to some group on campus. I do not believe David Duke, former KKK leader, is winning any academic awards anytime soon. 
However, if an alt-right or conservative columnist, like Coulter, can provide academic and logical support to their argument, let them speak. If someone does not like the views offered, they can protest to show their point, as long as they do not prevent the other from speaking.
This way, both groups exercise their freedom to speak equally and remain uninhibited.
The right to free speech exists so we can debate freely—so there can be a natural selection of ideas. Ideas with no logical backing die out. Good ideas go on to live in this marketplace until they too are contested by newer, better thoughts.
It is our duty to seek out and shine light on speech that is wrong. However, we cannot simply prevent someone from speaking, because then we will never know if it had any merit from the start.