Freedom of Speech . . . 0
. . . unless your boss is George Bush and your subject is ethics:
After Annas’ speech, given Sept. 28 to more than 100 people at the Veterans Administration hospital, the Department of Veterans Affairs received a single, unsigned letter of complaint questioning whether federal agencies should sponsor speakers who oppose current administration policies.
Administrators at the Philadelphia hospital appear to share the writer’s concern.
Chief of staff Martin Heyworth wrote in an Oct. 16 e-mail to the program director that if future talks in the series looked as though they might generate a similar reaction, “there might be some merit in canceling the rest of the series.”
