'YOUR SHIRT OFFENDS ME'. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) found that the University of Maryland at College Park “clearly and substantially restricts freedom of speech.”

A recent incident at the Maryland Food Collective, a shop in the College Park student union, is a disturbing case in point. A student seeking to pay for groceries was stopped by the clerk. “Your shirt offends me, I won’t ring you up,” the clerk said of the message stamped on the student’s T-shirt, “I Stand for Israel.” After much hand-wringing and political posturing by co-op and school officials, the student got her food after being checked out by a different clerk. Then she apologized to the offended clerk and offered a chocolate cake as proof of the sincerity of her apology for being “offensive.”

In this case the hand-wringing was done on behalf of the offended clerk--but in a parallell case where the shirt read "I Stand for Palestine," who would have been required to apologize to whom?

[Hat tip: Powerline]

Technorati Tag: Free Speech.