Letter to Florida Gulf Coast University President William Merwin
October 2004

Dear President Merwin:

Democracy is an insecure landscape and today it feels more so. I am deeply disappointed by your decision to postpone the Convocation at Florida Gulf Coast University. I was looking forward to addressing the students in the spirit conversation and discussing what engagement within a vibrant democracy means. The fact that you view my presence as "threatening" to your university because of statements I have made in print regarding President George W. Bush is deeply troubling. If our institutions of higher learning can no longer be counted on as champions and respecters of freedom of speech, then I fear no voice is safe from being silenced in this country. I understand this morning the Board of Governors supported your decision by a vote of 11 to 1, the dissenting vote belonging to the president of the Senate, a faculty member, the only trustee not appointed by Governor Jeb Bush.

As an American writer, I believe that to deny the students their own Convocation at this point in time, when this is precisely the conversation we are having now as a nation, is not only a breach of contract, but more tragically, a breach in democracy. I appreciated our conversation yesterday. It was important for me to listen to your concerns. You voiced your discomfort with my "anti-Bush" statements within the pages of my book, The Open Space of Democracy. You feared this would be a direct offense to Governor Jeb Bush, the brother of our president, who appointed the Board of Regents, your own Board of Trustees, and your donors, many who are supporters of the Bush brothers. In the name of "political balance" you made up your mind to postpone the Convocation and all other events associated with it, which also prohibits me from delivering the "Rachel Carson Distinguished Lecture" the following Monday, October 25, on Sanibel Island. You conveyed your sense of responsibility to "advance and protect" your institution and you feared that what I have said in writing is harmful to your university.

When I asked you what words of mine, in particular, had offended you the most, you shared them with me. As we read through the text together (pp. 17-19) it became clear that these words had been taken out of context, that my critique of President George W. Bush was, in fact, a critique of my own political rhetoric. What I was asking of myself was a deeper consideration of my own engagement in the democratic process, ". . . how might we face the polarity of opinion in our country right now, how we might take opposing views and blend them into some kind of civil dialogue." Each of us has the opportunity to engage in reflective questioning if we choose to move forward as a responsive citizen. By taking my words out of context and portraying me as "a Bush-basher" misrepresents me as a writer. The integrity of any writer's work resides in the dignity and imagination of ideas, not in the one-dimensional platitudes of a political campaign.

This is the irony of the situation you and I find ourselves in now. I do not believe either one of us wants to be trapped by ideology. The Open Space of Democracy is a call for conscious dialogue in times of divisive political rhetoric that has no heart. We have missed a rich opportunity for compassionate understanding and empathy. Censorship betrays the students' intelligence, individual power of discernment, and their own passionate exploration of ideas as they prepare to vote. I believe your action has stopped the dialogue around Convocation at a time when we need it most. Consequently, the student body of Florida Gulf Coast University is being robbed of the experience of emancipatory education, the gift of being able to participate in critical thinking, meaningful dialogue and debate, the very process inherent in an open society.

Carlo Maria Martini, a member of the College of Cardinals at the Vatican, in a letter to writer Umberto Eco regarding the nature of democracy, wrote, "The delicate game of democracy provides for a dialectic between opinions and beliefs in the hope that such exchange will expand the collective moral conscience that is the basis of orderly cohabitation."

The students of Florida Gulf Coast University have a copy of the Open Space of Democracy in hand. Perhaps this is what matters most. It is my sincere hope that the students will create their own terrain of dialogue and dissent, creativity and conversation. Democracy invites us to take risks. It asks that we vacate the comfortable seat of certitude, remain pliable, and act, ultimately, on behalf of the common good. Democracy's only agenda is that we participate.

I look forward to full participation in this ongoing discussion, President Merwin, and await a future invitation to speak at Florida Gulf Coast University. You will will find my honorarium for $5,000 returned to you with a request that it be given to students at The Center for Environmental and Sustainability Education with the idea that it could be used to create a forum for freedom of speech, whereby this discussion in the name of "the open space of democracy" can continue.

Sincerely,
Terry Tempest Williams