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Here we go again. Right-wing provocateurs are booked for an event, the left over-responds and organizers cry “free-speech violations” in order to gain sympathy.

The conservative political group Patriot Prayer, from Vancouver, Washington, is invited by the University of Washington College Republicans to a rally on campus Saturday and becomes a critical avatar of basic freedoms.

Rather than overreact and provide unearned legitimacy to such antics, progressives ought to quietly call their bluff and ask to be included in the “free-speech” event.

If, as organizers claim, the event is about speech, shouldn’t people be able to respond to and rebut the (nonsensical, damaging) views expressed therein?

Mark Gardner, Bellingham