Free dumb

Harley Barber, pictured at right doing God knows what for what reason, used to be a student at the University of Alabama.  Used to be, until she chose Martin Luther King Day to drop a slurstorm of racial invective on Instagram, using the foulest of terms to display the dark spot where her heart ought to be.

So she was expelled from the University and the Alpha Phi sorority, a group she had yearned to be part of since her high school days in New Jersey. 

University President Stuart R. Bell called the videos "highly offensive and deeply hurtful," and confirmed that Ms Barber, is "no longer enrolled here."

"We hold our students to much higher standards, and we apologize to everyone who has seen the videos and been hurt by this hateful, ignorant and offensive behavior," Bell said.

For her part, once she stopped and took stock of her actions, Barber realized she went way wrong here, telling the New York Post, "I don’t know what to do and I feel horrible. There’s just no excuse for what I did."

As for the Alpha Phi sorority, Linda Kahangi, executive director of Alpha Phi, says that the student "is no longer a member of Alpha Phi."

Kahangi told the Associated Press, "Alpha Phi is a diverse, values-based organization and condemns the language and opinions in these videos. They are offensive and hateful to both our own members and to other members of the Greek and campus community."

But a point needs to be made here. When the story hit the social media webs, people were quick to condemn her, but a few who have not read the Constitution all the way through got their backs up and said things like, "Way to take away her right of free speech!"

So once again, let's help these people remember...no one took away her right of free speech. She said these things, remember?

But the right to speak freely does not absolve one from bearing the responsibility of the ramifications of that speech. The University certain has the right to rid itself of people who make such asinine utterances.

Ms Barber, if her seeming penitence turns out to be real, might wind up back in college, and for all I know will have learned her lesson and become a true hero in the fight for equality and justice for all...just like it says in the Constitution.

But nowhere in there does it say that you can say wrong and hateful things and not expect to pay a price for being wrong and hateful.