It is a triumph of irony that the free speech movement that began in 1965 at the University of California-Berkeley has now abandoned free speech for censored speech. Berkeley's message is clear: Conservative speakers will be shouted down, shut out, and shown the door.

Yes, we still have free speech, of sorts; but you better watch what you say. The President of Harvard University Larry Summers learned that the hard way.

Go back to 2005. Summers made the outrageous claim that men are better at math than women. Heaven help us. Well, one could have heard the caterwauling from Massachusetts to California. The debate was scrubbed. One might suppose that those who took issue with Summers would have welcomed a dialogue that would expose this canard. But no.

Summers was hooted out from Harvard with his tail between his legs.

Twelve years later nothing's changed. This year promises to be a busy time for the speech police.

Last February a customary riot at UC-Berkeley canceled a speech by conservative Milo Yiannopoulos. The protesters made their point by causing $100,000 in damages. The police came down on the hooligans with the force of a feather duster. One person was arrested.

Scroll ahead to March. Prof. Allison Stanger invited author Charles Murray to speak at Middlebury College. You may recall that Murray's controversial book, The Bell Curve, detailed the differences among races and ethnicities,  I.Q. being one of them.

“I am a Democrat;” said Stanger, “this was my chance to demonstrate my commitment to free and fair exchange of views in my classroom.”

Stanger had time to reflect on her decision in the hospital. She was severely injured in the mob violence protesting and preventing Murray's appearance.

As this is being written, the Berkeley police were given a “stand down” order signaling the protesters to ready their ranks for another day of mayhem. This time the rowdyism is to be directed against a speaking engagement by the right-wing author, Ann Coulter.

Update on Coulter: Her engagement was squelched. Ann got the boot.

Why, then, have lawless demonstrations taken root? Could it be Trump? Unlikely. Murray's book came out 23 years ago. And hard-right literati like Milo and Coulter have always been part of the political landscape. There must be something else.

There was a time in this writer's memory when we, this nation, all pulled on the oars together. For the most part, there was one language, one religion, and a commonality of traditions, customs, and values.

But we sorely lacked that stellar virtue, diversity. Senator Ted Kennedy fixed that.

Kennedy spearheaded a fight in the Senate to revamp immigration with legislation that would change America more than the two world wars combined. It was called the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965.

The 1965 Act reversed the National Quota Act of 1921 that gave preference to Europeans and restricted immigrants from Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Henceforth, these groups were to be given preference over Europeans.

Today, 50 years after Kennedy's immigration bill, we can take a post-mortem of what he said about his legislation and its consequences.

• “Our cities will not be flooded with a million immigrants”---wrong. The U.S. is the unwilling host to 12 million to 20 million squatters.

• “The present level of immigration remains substantially the same”---wrong. The Census Bureau predicts that by 2060 85 percent will have foreign-born parents.

• “The ethnic mix of this country will not be upset”---wrong. In 1965, the percentage of Hispanics in the U.S. was 4 percent. Today it is 18 percent. The U.S. is now bilingual; Spanish is the second language.

• “It will not cause American workers to lose their jobs”---wrong. Kennedy's immigration bill uprooted hundreds of thousands of Americans out of the middle class because of the collapse in wages due to imported cheap labor.

Half a century ago we were a nation with a shared European heritage, had one national language, were overwhelmingly Christian, and had compatible traditions and customs.

And most important, the left and the right stood four square behind the First Amendment's right to free say-what-you-will speech; the indispensable right.

Today, those very qualities that formerly knitted the nation together have become fault lines of bitter contention.

Worse still, these divisions are irreconcilable.

Post-1965 the United States is like that fantasized figure that fell off a wall and was shattered into a thousand pieces. And all the king's horses and all the king's men cannot put America back together again.

Sincerely,

Bob Scroggins

New Milford, PA