M y childhood in Romania was pretty basic. I was raised in a conservative society and was fed American entertainment 24 hours a day. Everything, from the movies I watched to the books I read, came mostly from the U.S. When I was 10, I was in a bookstore with my father when I spotted a notebook that I wanted to buy. I asked my father for it, but his answer was a clear “no.” My response came just as clearly: I sat down on the floor, arms crossed. “Free speech,” I said, as I looked him in the eyes. “Child, you are not in America, you are under my dictatorship,” my father said, clearly amused by my misdemeanor. He pulled me up and walked me out of the store. As a European, hearing an American say “free speech” was fascinating. I couldn’t put my finger on the difference between Europe’s and America’s differing concepts of free speech, but I knew that Europeans never talked about it while Americans seemed to instinctively mention it whenever they could. Ten years later, as I hear tech companies defend their inability to regulate hate speech, the term “free speech” makes me shiver. In recent years, we have seen countries in the European Union clash with American social media giants, as with the General Data Protection Regulation laws, which gave users more control over their data; the “right to be forgotten” enforced in the EU, which bans Google from sharing people’s personal information online if they have asked to erase it; and the German Media Authority’s regulation requiring accurate contact information to better regulate the ads posted on social media. At the same time, we have seen Facebook allow its advertisers to specifically reach “Jew haters,” or create a censorship guideline to delete posts targeted against a “protected category,” but not against a subset of that protected category. In one of the documents offering guidelines for Facebook’s censors, the question, “Which group is protected from hate speech?” was followed by three possible answers: “female drivers,” “black children” and “white men.” The correct answer? “White men.” Had they been created in Europe, social media platforms would look different. Their fight to avoid any kind of governmental regulation probably wouldn’t have flourished. Strictly enforced regulations from the European Union would have taken the place of their own censorship guidelines. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s motto, “Move fast and break things,” would’ve probably raised more eyebrows — especially when “breaking things” creates a space where hate speech can flourish. Europeans reject and criminalize any kind of hate speech. Following World War II, the Council of Europe established the European Court of Human Rights, which protects free speech up to a certain limit: That limit is where it starts interfering with human dignity. Dignity is a word which seems missing from most of the debates we are having on the limits of free speech on social media platforms. We talk about the need to have our ideas heard, to be able to freely debate, to go against the status- quo. But as much as Americans value their “free speech,” this free speech does not happen in a vacuum. It happens within a historical background from which we are supposed to learn and strengthen our belief in giving each human being the right to “dignity.” While many have already discussed the merits of regulating “hate speech” online in a similar fashion to European guidelines, others have complained that hate speech laws in Europe “suppress and punish left-wing viewpoints.” That is the point, though hate speech regulations were never meant to punish one side of the debate, but to punish those who bring the debate into the realms of violence and hatred. An example of Europe’s harsh laws was Azhar Ahmed’s case, when he as a British teenager wrote a post on his Facebook talking about the innocent Afghans killed by British soldiers after some British soldiers were killed in the war. In his post, he included the comment, “All soldiers should DIE & go to HELL! THE LOWLIFE F*****N SCUM!” which led to him being arrested for a “racially aggravated public order offense.” For many, this case might raise some question marks. For me, it only emphasizes the fact that both right-wing speech and left-wing arguments can be made without attacking the humanity and dignity of the “other,” whether the “other” is a group of innocent Afghans or British soldiers. Europe’s hate speech laws are not perfect, but compared to the “free speech” argument, it strives to allow for discussions to happen in a safe space, helping maintain human empathy when arguing for one’s side of an argument. Whether a tweet or a Facebook post comes from someone from the political left or right, once violence is inserted, humane understanding is forgotten. In a political climate of increasing hatred, we should look for creating empathy on our social media platforms. I think I look too hard for love. Maybe I’m just a hopeless romantic. Maybe I just long to have something — or someone — who could pick up the trail of pieces I have left and rearrange them in a way I am unable to do so myself. Upon moving to New York City, my hopes of finding this fix began to feel more palpable. Surely, I surmised, these pieces would effortlessly find a place to fall into. And after weeks of looking, they did. Yet it was not where I expected. The warm days of July began to fade, and a growing desire to mend this enduring discontent came along with it. An occupation of the mind with something different, I concluded, would be the best remedy. Hoping to get involved with the thriving gay community of New York, I decided to visit the local Callen-Lorde Community Health Center in an effort to find ways to volunteer within the community. Never before had I been to a major city health center specifically for LGBTQ people. And never before had I truly understood the significance these centers have. After being greeted by the building’s security guard, his weathered face marked with an enduring smile, I was pointed toward the entrance of the center’s youth program. I took a seat on one of the inviting green sofas that filled the room, waiting for the hall’s two receptionists to call me to speak. Both of them must have been near the same age as me, yet their poise and steadiness with each coming patient before them affirmed their experience. Despite the uncertainty that painted the faces of those in the room, a sense of belonging and safety filled the air. People from different corners of the country, some escaping tattered homes — some, the brutal grip of poverty — came to one, unified refuge. The woman next to me, gently unwrinkling a thin stack of dollar bills in her rugged hands, explained that she had to wait three extra days to return for her next round of injections for hormone therapy. The boy who walked in before me joked with the young woman behind the desk, with a soft gaze affirming each word that left his mouth. The tightness in my chest loosened as I began to understand that no internal guard was needed here. I did not have to regulate my words or the way in which those words left my mouth. I had found a place that required no additional explanation of myself, or my experiences, because we all were sewn from the very same thread. I took a deep breath and peered around the room full of people who bore no physical or familial appearance, but shared something so palpable that it filled the air. This is what love looked like in its purest form. It wasn’t love by any traditional means — or at least the love I had imagined. But it was a love that I was missing in my life. Now, the pieces I had left behind were not picked back up but replaced with something stronger. Recently, there have been many days filled with hopelessness from what I see in the news, on my campus or even in my own home. While there is a crucial duty to maintain dialogue among all of us to bridge these seemingly irreconcilable differences, there remains a need for spaces where people from all walks of life can come together to heal and grow. Centers like Callen-Lorde remain crucial for such a reality. These centers do not just provide a space for people who have been kicked out of their homes or cast aside by society. They provide vital medical care to individuals who would otherwise often not have access to such resources. Some people are without such proper care due to discrimination — others due to homelessness, a lack of financial means or limited English proficiency. In fact, in the case of community health centers in general, over 70 percent of patients seen have incomes below the federal poverty level. These centers have medical professionals trained to specifically handle LGBT-related health issues. There are many types of treatments and services, such as hormone therapy and pre- exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), that many physicians may not be familiar with. Almost one in 10 LGBTQ people have said that a health care provider has refused to see them because of their actual or perceived sexual orientation, and three in 10 transgender individuals experienced the same treatment due to their actual or perceived gender identity. Such instances have taken place in our own state of Michigan, and are often even protected under the law. For example, in Roseville, a pediatrician refused care to an infant because she had same- sex parents. Beyond our own state, a transgender 14-year-old, admitted to a San Diego hospital for attempting to commit suicide, was continuously misgendered and discharged early from the hospital staff. Upon release, he killed himself. These community centers are not just helpful, they are crucial to closing some of the many disparities afflicting our health care system. My time in New York allowed me to see these integral spaces in our country firsthand. Callen- Lorde is an oasis for people who have been set aside because of who they love or the way they were born to exist in a place — no matter how temporary — without judgment. Through expansion and greater awareness of these centers, it is that very love and support that I hope to further on campus, and beyond, in the future. Consider donating to these LGBTQ+ health centers: http://callen-lorde.org/ donation/ https://www.jimtoycenter. org/donate Opinion The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com 4A — Tuesday, November 6, 2018 Emma Chang Ben Charlson Joel Danilewitz Samantha Goldstein Emily Huhman Tara Jayaram Jeremy Kaplan Lucas Maiman Magdalena Mihaylova Ellery Rosenzweig Jason Rowland Anu Roy-Chaudhury Alex Satola Ali Safawi Ashley Zhang Sam Weinberger DAYTON HARE Managing Editor 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. ALEXA ST. JOHN Editor in Chief ANU ROY-CHAUDHURY AND ASHLEY ZHANG Editorial Page Editors Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily’s Editorial Board. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors. EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS ANAMARIA CUZA | COLUMN What if Facebook was created in Europe? A breathing place ALEX KUBIE | COLUMN Anamaria Cuza can be reached at anacuza@umich.edu. Alex Kubie can be reached at akubie@umich.edu. W e are writing as concerned members of the UM community in response to Dean Elizabeth Cole’s letter to Professor John Cheney- Lippold outlining disciplinary measures. We are also disturbed by the covert politicization of teaching and service evidenced in President Mark Schlissel’s and Provost Martin Philbert’s letter to the campus. Under the guise of separating political commitments from our role as educators, the university administration has taken a clear political stance against the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement. Irrespective of faculty positions regarding BDS, the President, Provost and Dean’s disciplinary actions threaten academic freedom and have had a chilling effect on workplace morale. Rather than debating the merits of an important political issue of our time, the university has taken a side, and disparaged pro-BDS students, staff and faculty. We stand in solidarity with others who have already expressed their disagreement with the administration. We agree with UM Professor Juan Cole who wrote that it is not “the place of a university administration to coerce faculty or other instructors’ conscience on these issues, which are much more complex than they seem to realize.” We agree with Stanford University Professor David Palumbo- Liu who wrote, “disciplining faculty who refuse to write letters opens up the possibility that universities will be turned into pawns of ideologically- driven organizations who target professors critical of their views.” We stand with graduate students who have stated that such disciplinary measures set “an alarming, worrying, and dangerous precedent for impinging on the protected political speech and action of employees of the university.” We stand with signers of the Change.org petition who assert that such disciplinary actions promote the corporatization of education and thus trivialize our work as educators by “bypassing the educational mission of the university (...) and turning professors into simply service providers.” The University of Michigan has always stood firm on the issues of academic freedom enshrined in the faculty handbook. We remain committed to this tradition and to educating thoughtful critical thinkers and citizens. We call on the administration to refrain from any disciplinary actions against graduate student Lucy Peterson and to drop the actions against Professor John Cheney-Lippold. We call on the university to include diverse voices in the new panel the provost has created to examine the intersection between political thought/ ideology and faculty members’ responsibilities to students. We call on the university to affirm our shared institutional commitment to academic freedom. Samer Ali, Center for Middle Eastern & North African Studies, UM-Ann Arbor Evelyn Alsultany, American Culture, Ann Arbor Sascha Crasnow, Residential College, Ann Arbor Su’ad Abdul Khabeer, American Culture Deirdre de la Cruz, Department of History, University of Michigan Ann Arbor Victor Mendoza, Women’s Studies and English, UM Ann Arbor Kate Jenckes, Romance Languages and Literatures, Ann Arbor Anton Shammas, MES, UM Ann Arbor Dr. Savithry Namboodiripad Linguistics/LS&A UMich Ann Arbor Manan Desai, American Culture and Asian/Pacific Islander American Studies, UM Ann Arbor Alan M. Wald, English and American Culture, U-M Collegiate Professor Emeritus (Ann Arbor Campus) Karla Mallette, Global Islamic Studies Center, U-M Ann Arbor Zoya Zalatimo, Middle Eastern Studies, Ann Arbor Campus J Carlos de Los Santos/RLL, Ann Arbor Evyn Kropf, University Library, Ann Arbor Farah Kader, International Studies, UM Ann Arbor Melissa Phruksachart, Dept. of Film, Television, and Media, Ann Arbor Sergio Villalobos, RLL Ian Watts, Mechanical Engineering Department, College of Engineering Silan Fadlallah, Student LS&A, Ann Arbor Bushra Habbas-Nimer Mar Freire Hermida, Romance Languages and Literatures, Ann Arbor Howard Brick, Department of History, UM, Ann Arbor Sally Howell, Center for Arab American Studies, UM-Dearborn Joshua Akers, Social Science, UM-Dearborn Angie Achkar, Undergraduate Student Hani Bawardi, SSCI/ HIST&AAST, UM-D Kevin Kobelsky, College of Business, Dearborn Dennis D. Pollard, Romance Languages, Ann Arbor Antoine Traisnel, Departments of English and Comparative Literature, UM Ann Arbor Michael Lempert, Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes, American Culture/Romance Languages, LSA, Ann Arbor Pam Pennock, College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters, UM-Dearborn Clare Croft, Dance, School of Music, Theatre & Dance Kristin Poling, Social Science Department, UM-Dearborn Jalal, LSA, Ann Arbor Andrew Shryock, Anthropology/LSA, Ann Arbor Daniel Andrew Birchok, Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice, University of Michigan- Flint Elizabeth F.S. Roberts, Anthropology, LSA Daniel Nemser, Romance Languages and Literatures, UM-Ann Arbor Bruce Pietrykowski, Social Sciences/CASL, UM-Dearborn Sara McClelland, Women’s Studies & Psychology, Central Campus Nayli Ma, Asian Studies and Biology, Ann Arbor Katherine L. French-History- UM Ann Arbor Elif Izberk-Bilgin, Management Studies, UMD Janice Molloy, Management Studies, Dearborn Reem Khatib, LSA, UM Campus David Skrbina, LPA/Philosophy, Dearborn Maria Ulayyet, LSA, UM Ann Arbor Mary Kelley, Departments of History and American Culture, UM, Ann Arbor Faith Sparr/Communication Studies Lisa Martin, College Wide Programs, UM-Dearborn Fatma Müge Göçek, Sociology/ LS&A, UM Ann Arbor Suzanne Bergeron, University of Michigan Dearborn Juan Cole, History, University of Michigan Ann Arbor Anna Watkins Fisher, American Culture, UM Ann Arbor H. Erdem Cipa, History & Middle East Studies, Ann Arbor Paolo Squatriti/History, Ann Arbor Osman Khan, Stamps School of Art & Design, Ann Arbor Roi Livne, Sociology, Ann Arbor Nancy A. Khalil, American Culture/AMAS, Ann Arbor Saquib Ali Usman, Anthropology, Ann Arbor Will Glover, History, Ann Arbor Rima Hassouneh/Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies & the Center for Southeast Asian Studies/UM-Ann Arbor Muniba Saleem/ Communication Studies Holly Hughes, Professor, Stamps School of Art and Design, Theater and Drama and Women’s Studies Rebekah Modrak, Stamps School of Art & Design, Ann Arbor Andrew Herscher, Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, UM Ann Arbor Javier Sanjines, Romance Languages and Literatures, UM Ann Arbor Rifaat Dika, Department of Language, Culture, and Communication-Dearborn Margaret K Willard-Traub, LCC, UM-Dearborn Rashmi Luthra, Department of Language, Culture and Communication, College of Arts, Sciences and Letter, University of Michigan-Dearborn campus Lara Rusch, Dept. of Social Sciences, UM-Dearborn Rose Wellman, Department of Behavioral Sciences, University of Michigan-Dearborn Patrick Beauchesne, Behavioral Sciences/ Anthropology, Dearborn Brian McKenna, Behavioral Sciences, Anthropology Dr. Maya Barak, Criminology and Criminal Justice, UM-Dearborn Peggy McCracken, Romance Languages, Women’s Studies, and Comparative Literature, Ann Arbor Stavroula Kyriazis, Ford School of Public Policy Giorgio Bertellini, Film, Television, and Media Holly Hughes, Professor, School of Art and Design Ian Shin, History & American Culture, Ann Arbor Maria Cotera, American Culture and Women’s Studies Khaled Mattawa, English, Ann Arbor Peggy Lee, American Culture, Ann Arbor Charlotte Karem Albrecht, American Culture, Women’s Studies, Ann Arbor Statement from UM faculty to administration UNDERSIGNED UM FACULTY AND COMMUNITY | OP-ED These community centers are crucial to closing some of the many disparities affecting our health system. Once violence is inserted, humane understanding is forgotten.