In a series of recent events, The Pacifica Forum has been brought to the attention of the public. This forum has been active for over 10 years and has had no other complaints until now. With all the controversy, the question of whether the Pacifica Forum should be aloud to stay on campus has been on many people’s minds. One issue should not be grounds to remove an established group from campus. The Pacifica Forum should continue to be allowed on campus because it promotes important controversial discussions. The Pacifica Forum debate blew up when a swastika was painted on the LGBTQTA’s front door. Although the culprit for this act of hate has not been established, many choose to blame the Pacifica forum. The reason this conclusion is drawn is because recently the forum has been inviting hate speech speakers to come and talk to the forum. One of these speakers includes a Neo-Nazi Holocaust denier. The question of whether a speaker with such controversial views should be able to perform on campus is currently at debate. The Pacifica forum was started by Orval Etter in 1994 as a place where controversial ideas about “war and peace militarism and pacifism, violence and non-violence." The forum has received the reputation that many of its members also harbor similar ideas to some of the speakers.
Although the Pacifica Forum may displease many University of Oregon students and officials, the forum itself is not actually breaking any rules. Bringing in multiple known hate speakers isn’t necessarily a bad thing considering the beliefs of the hateful individuals aren’t usually discussed or analyzed. I personally find the Pacifica Forum to be a positive campus influence because without the forum, issues like hate and neo-Nazism would be ignored entirely. I’m not saying that the forum is a good thing in its entirety, but it has a number of redeeming qualities that I find far outweigh the negative qualities. The forum has recently b...