QUOTE: Pedophilia for Progressives     5/9/2002 QUOTE: Pedophilia for Progressives “The newest hero to enter the pantheon of free-speech warriors in our time is the University of Missouri’s Harris Mirkin, author of an article intended to undo our culture’s delusion that there is something innately wrong with adults engaging in sex with children. … “It is Dr. Mirkin’s view, published in The Journal of Homosexuality, that the “panic over pedophilia” is much like the way people once viewed female sexuality and homosexuality. Pedophilia, he notes, has been permissible or obligatory in some cultures in certain periods of history. We might point out that the same could be said of human sacrifice. “Dr. Mirkin says his article was meant to be ‘subversive.’ This would seem obvious. As for making people think, the professor’s views did that all right, particularly in the Missouri Legislature. State Senators and Representatives voted to reduce taxpayer funding to the university by $100,000. As far as the learned elite was concern, that was the only outrage; the Legislature’s action provoked far more consternation than did Dr. Mirkin’s article. The chancellor of the university upheld Dr. Mirkin’s right to express his views, and the American Association of University Professors did likewise. Universities ought to uphold academic freedom and protect speech. Still, a state legislature that moves to express its outrage at views that violate elementary moral standards is not out of bounds either. If a university can’t give society’s standards a voice, it’s not surprising if a legislature should try to do so.” — Excerpted from “Pedophiles and Progressives,” The Wall Street Journal, Review and Outlook section, May 5, 2002.