Free speech and football

I went to Berkeley last weekend for football. I got an unexpected lesson in free speech – and a reminder that freedom is on the ballot this year.

Because wannabe dictator Donald Trump would terminate the First Amendment in a minute.

My son James and I were exploring the University of California’s beautiful, hilly campus Friday morning when we saw that this month is the 60^th anniversary of the Free Speech Movement.

So, we went to a talk about the 1964 movement by Waldo Martin (photo), a UC professor and co-author of Black Against Empire, a history of the Black Panther Party. He’s a native of Greensboro who as a young man was inspired by the 1960 sit-ins there.

Martin said the Berkeley protest grew out of the civil-rights Freedom Summer in Mississippi.

When Freedom Summer veterans returned to Berkeley, they set up information tables and solicited donations on campus.

The university administration declared that illegal. Police arrested one activist, and thousands of protesters massed in the square at Sproul Hall, the administration building.

The protests lasted through the academic year. They inspired years of campus protests across the country – for civil rights and against the Vietnam War.

They also led to Ronald Reagan, who got elected governor in 1966 by pledging to “clean up the mess in Berkeley.” Reagan unseated Governor Pat Brown, father of future four-term Governor Jerry Brown.

Across the country, North Carolina was having its own free-speech battle.

In 1963, conservative legislators rammed through the Speaker Ban Law, which banned campus appearances by communists and anyone who invoked the Fifth Amendment when asked if they were communists.

The loudest cheerleader for the speaker-ban was Jesse Helms, then a TV editorialist in Raleigh and later a U.S. Senator and key supporter of Reagan for President.

The tension between protest and repression is deep in our nation’s DNA. In the 1790s, Federalist supporters of President John Adams enacted the Alien and Sedition Laws outlawing criticism of the government. Some anti-Federalist editors were thrown into prison.

Thomas Jefferson defeated Adams in 1800, repealed the onerous laws and made freedom of speech, thought and religion a fundamental pillar of our nation.

Today, Trump and MAGA Republicans would gleefully lock up their critics. In this election, just as in 1800, we need to reaffirm freedom.

As for the football in Berkeley, it was an A+ experience. The weather was perfect: upper 70s, sunny, dry and windy. (There’s no tailgating because of fire risk.)

Memorial Stadium is a century-old bowl on a hillside, with spectacular views of the Bay Area and Golden Gate. It was a little more than half full Saturday afternoon, with red-clad State fans scattered throughout the crowd.

Cal fans are new to the ACC and haven’t learned to hate yet. They were friendly and welcoming, and their team was most hospitable, giving up two Wolfpack touchdowns in the fourth-quarter and, in the final two minutes, missing a 29-yard field goal that would have won the game.

The Cal fans seemed unfazed. Maybe they care more about free speech than football.