I promise not to make the Williams College fiasco of last month a running feature on Radio Derb, but I do have some news that may be of interest.

I have to be circumspect here, for reasons that will be immediately clear. Suffice it to say that some people who know me — Williams alumni and outside persons active in support of academic freedom — tried to set up an off-campus event where I could speak to any students and faculty that cared to attend. They asked me if I would speak under those circumstances. I said I would.

Nothing came of it, however. I assumed, in my self-effacing way, it was just lack of interest. Talking with one of the people involved, though, he said no, students had been scared off by all the fuss. They were worried that their college careers might be affected by association with me.

Now that is scary. I'm a mild-mannered sort of fellow. Like Thomas More in the play, "I do none harm, I speak none harm, I think none harm." If you can get socially ostracized on campus for listening to me, there is something badly wrong somewhere.