In the fall of 2004, free speech smacked Joe Vogel in the face. The controversy over filmmaker Michael Moore's speech at UVSC put Vogel front and center in a conservative vs. liberal debate and changed his life.

Now he's detailed those hard-learned lessons in a book called "Free Speech 101: Do Conservatives Fear Free Speech? The Utah Valley Uproar Over Michael Moore." Wind River Publishing will give the book a regional release on Aug. 7 and release it nationally on Oct. 2.

"Basically it's about the First Amendment being in jeopardy because of fear, money, politics," Vogel said.

In an interview in the documentary "This Divided State," Vogel said that news of his work on the book cost him his position as student body vice president at Utah Valley State College -- the same role that gave him a front-row seat to the wrath surrounding Moore's visit to campus.

Now with hindsight of the bitter debate, Vogel said he hopes his book will put into perspective an issue much bigger than a speaker coming to town.

"It'd be one thing if they'd said, 'I don't like Michael Moore. I'm not going to go to this speech,'" he said. "But for them to try to prevent thousands of other people who wanted to hear that speech from attending it, that's the scary part, the lengths people went to stop it -- checks, a lawsuit, thousands of threats for withdrawn funds. I would hope people will recognize that what makes our country great is free expression, academic freedom, free exchange of ideas. That's kind of the theme of the book."

Moore's sister, Anne, encouraged him to write the book, Vogel said, and she gets a mention in the acknowledgments.

As Vogel wrote, he pored through letters, e-mails, phone messages and news reports to rekindle his memories of the events.

"The theme of this book is, 'What does this say about our community, our state and our country?' Those are the things that were really interesting for me to learn about and reflect on," he said.

Despite the book's political subtitle, Vogel is careful not to paint himself red or blue. "Politically, I consider myself independent. I've voted both ways, Republican and Democrat. I wouldn't consider myself liberal necessarily. Probably on some issues I'd be liberal and on some I'd be conservative."

Publisher JB Howick said the book met two requirements that publishers look for: It interested him personally and had the potential to make money.

"It's a book that's going to stir a little controversy and address an issue we think is important in America today," Howick said.

"There's a lot of people in America today who are a little worried about the reactions they see in the editorial pages of their own newspaper. Someone writes in about something they're passionate about and then 10 people write in with scathing, flaming letters telling them they're un-American, unpatriotic blankety-blanks. A lot of people are nervous we're becoming intolerant as a nation."

Three thousand copies of the book will be printed initially, and hundreds have been pre-sold. Vogel is now a graduate student in English at Brigham Young University and is the author of four self-published books.

Marjorie Lindsey, trade book buyer for the UVSC bookstore, said "Free Speech 101" will "definitely" be on the shelves there, and she wonders if controversy will again stalk Joe Vogel.

"I wish I knew," Lindsey said. "He's controversial, and the whole experience was, so I anticipate that it'll probably be very good. He's a logical thinking, clear-headed young man, and I respect his opinion. It'll be interesting to see his view of what happened."

The book packs a few surprises. "This Divided State" filmmaker Steven Greenstreet said he was "blown away" by his advance copy of the book. "It takes no prisoners. He has hate mail in there just copied and pasted with the first and last names. He's naming names. He's dragging people out into the light. It's details are absolutely maddening."

More than a year after the first headline about Michael Moore's visit to Utah Valley State College, Vogel is still a kind of celebrity. "I still get e-mails trickling in, and some of them say I'm going to hell, and some of them praise me for what we did as a student government."

UVSC president Bill Sederburg said the debate turns up in an occasional letter to UVSC, and it came up when a panel of consultants visited campus conducting research about UVSC's potential to become a university. But the controversy has long been out of steam, Sederburg said.

"It's very much alive as a topic, but it's not a hot button topic," Sederburg said.

Anna Chang-Yen can be reached at 344-2549 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it