Freedom of Speech, Responsibility to Listen

We were at dinner on January 19th when Elisabeth Dellit received a message from her Migrant Justice group chat alerting the club’s members about a meeting that night to organize a protest against a career conversation with Phillip Cosentino ’00. Cosentino recently retired after 25 years in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), serving as a counterterrorism and extremist radicalization analyst.

Having planned to attend the career conversation herself because of her interest in a career as a public servant, Dellit didn’t attend the meeting to rally against Cosentino and the CIA. She also went through with her plans to attend and brought two of her friends.

At the career conversation on January 20th, two students handed out pamphlets titled, “The CIA is a Terrorist Organization.” The pamphlet succeeded in raising questions about the moral implications of working at the CIA. It also effectively informed students about the tensions between students and the CIA’s presence at Middlebury. 

It appeared that the protest would end with the pamphlets. However, it quickly became clear that Migrant Justice’s goal was to disrupt the entire conversation, which was neither a recruitment event nor a pro-CIA rally. 

Before Cosentino began to speak about his experience, he prefaced that the CIA is a controversial organization and welcomed students to come to him directly afterwards, or even to join him for coffee. 

At first, people were called on, then asked to wait until the end, and finally, questions turned into full-blown interruptions. 

Then came the noise. 

At first, it was an innocent cough here and there. A water bottle clattered on the linoleum. Then it became a cacophony of continual stomping, coughing, lip smacking, and the rattling of keys. Ringtones and alarms were going off in succession. Paper towels were being dispensed and torn obnoxiously loudly. It became nearly impossible to hear or concentrate on Consentino. 

As American citizens, we have the right and responsibility to hold our government accountable for its actions and mistakes. However, we must consider the individual in addition to the organization he represents, and act accordingly. 

In fairness to the protestors, Consentino was not directly answering their questions about the controversial, sometimes horrific, missions of the CIA. However, he had stated his agenda beforehand: To explain his career and then answer questions. 

Speaking with Consentino after the event, we learned that no one had taken him up on the offer to have coffee or even engage in an honest conversation with him. No intellectual growth came from the protests, nor a moment of healthy debate.

They wanted to take away his platform. And by doing so, they lost their ability to have the vitally needed discourse at this school. 

Having served as governor of Vermont from 2003–2011, (R) Jim Douglas ’72 spoke briefly at the kickoff of the first College Democrat-Republican joint meeting earlier in the year about the importance of civil conversation. “People didn’t always agree with me, but they never thought that I should not be heard,” he remarked. This is the mentality Middlebury College needs to take in this political environment.  

It’s hard to listen to people we fundamentally disagree with, especially on a moral or ethical level. But everyone deserves respect. We hope the Middlebury community can agree on that.