It’s not really a new thing, but this is the latest indication that most universities aren’t. They clearly want a diversity in everything except opinion.
[Update a few minutes later]
“I blame Rice as much as the bullies. By withdrawing, Rice sends a message to other campuses that the tactic works.”
Sadly, yes.
When it comes to thought, the opposite of diversity is university.
“University” an institution of learning of the highest level dedicated to teaching a single verse.
I’m not part of the “blame” Rice coterie. Classy people act with class & by not ruining the ceremony for the majority Dr. Rice acted with class.
BTW, speaking to the barbarians always win meme, yes, they do. How many remember the famed (infamous?) “Free Speech” movement at early 60’s Beserkley was run by Mario Savio, who only wanted to say f-ck and other terms openly on campus.
It is much easier to break things than to build them. It is miraculous that anything is built.
Taking the high road doesn’t work with these people.
if you want a diversity of opinion, would you support a university inviting Raul Castro
or Saddam Hussein back in the 90’s or perhaps, Bashar Assad, or someone from the
venezuelan government?
How about Bill Ayers? or Jeremiah Wright? Would you oppose their speaking at Rutgers?
That was the point of the free speech movement. Either you’re for free speech or you’re not.
Understand, if Saddam Hussein had come to speak, I wouldn’t mind if someone arrested him and tried him for war crimes.
I was actually involved when Meir Kahana came to speak at Berkeley. I was curious to hear what he had to say (which I didn’t like much when I heard him). People told me I was nuts to support him speaking; I was being a “useful idiot”. Whatever – I wanted to hear him speak. Those who didn’t were free to not show up.
And contrary to what people seem to like to claim today, free speech is not something about restricting the government’s interference, as if it was invented by the Constitution. Other way round: the reason the Bill of Rights protects freedom of speech is because it’s valuable and important in its own right.
I remember also attending when Noam Chomsky spoke, and I _really_ disliked him even before he started. My sole act of protest, as I recall, was that they asked for a voluntary donation, and I said, Oh! If it’s voluntary then I’d rather not.
Noam Chomsky? You think you had it bad, but I volunteered to attend our graduation this May and I have to listen to . . . Jon Hunstman!
I agree that there is a bit of a double standard here but lets take a look at the people various groups object to. Rice vs Saddam or Castro? That Democrats reflexively side with the later two choices says a lot. What type of speakers are commonplace on college campuses these days also says a lot. There are a lot of despicable people celebrated by Democrats on campus.
Why would I have to bother “supporting” it? The universities love speakers like that, you moron.
Ah,
So you don’t support universities when they invite your favorite punching bags to speak.
So your only complaint is who is getting invited to speak and who is getting protested.
Good to know.
You see the difference is that the commencement I am attending, I won’t be standing up to shout “Your Daddy is a liar and a disgrace to the Latter-Day Saints community!” (See my above post) I will be simply sitting there quietly, maybe rolling my eyes, but sitting and listening . . . to your friend Jon Hunstman.
It’s amazing how many idiotic things you think you “know” that are nonsense.
Rand, what do I do? Our Department Chairman put the arm on us in Faculty Meeting to get bodies to attend Commencement with our students, and I didn’t even know Jon Huntsman was the invited speaker. Remember, it was Huntsman senior who slandered Romney on his personal taxes that he chose not to disclose, and it was Reid who parroted the slander on the Senator floor.
The Huntsmans are not only LDS as is Reid and Romney, Reid and the Huntsman Jr. are that other word that starts m-o-r. (Holding head) Oh, woe is me, I will have to sit there and just listen to all of this. Please, please, I would rather listen to Noam Chomsky!
Take a month off, read The Federalist Papers, and then come back to join us.
Given how things are going, I also recommend reading The Anti-Federalist Papers. These were written by people opposed to radifying the Constitution. It’s important to get both sides of the argument, especially when we see how the government is effectively ignoring the Constitution today.
Neither Ayers nor Wright seem to have much trouble getting college speaking gigs. I can’t find that either has given a commencement speech anywhere recently, though prior to 2008, Wright used to do so at traditionally black colleges and universities. He gave a major address at Colgate in 1998, though it was not the commencement speech. Ayers, likewise, is hardly a stranger to campus speaking. Two days, ago, in fact, he was the keynote speaker at Kent State University’s annual commemoration of the four students killed there during 1970 anti-Vietnam War protests. His wife and fellow Weather Underground terrorist Bernardine Dohrn spoke there on the same occasion a few years ago. Ayers also made major speeches at Gettyburg College in 2013, University of Oregon in 2012 and Millersville University (PA) in 2009. Could doubtless have found more if I’d kept plowing through the copious search results.
Raul Castro, Saddam Hussein, Bashar Assad and the putative future draft pick from the late Hugo Chavez’s regime in Venezuela are all, and would have been even in the 90’s, difficult “gets” given their statuses as current or former dictators of national governments that are, or were, openly hostile to the United States. One wonders how you managed to leave Kim Jong Un off this list of distinguished scumbags. Doubtless there would be protests were any of these worthies invited to give the commencement address at an American university. Whether said protests would result in cancellation of the putative invitation to speak is more problematical. There would certainly be no shortage of good little left-wing stooges on most any major American campus these days frothingly eager to not only attend but to cheer wildly as Raul Castro, for example, drones on about the wonders of Cuban universal healthcare or Dictator/Opthamologist Bashar Assad regales them with tales of conducting field trials of sarin gas as a cataract preventive.
Interesting comments, all.
The current controversies surrounding Rutgers impact me in interesting ways. I am a third generation Rutgers graduate. My father was class of 1935 and his father was class of 1890. That grandfather was also captain of the very first Rutgers lacrosse team. He was also born in 1869 — the year of the very first intercollegiate football game. Rutgers beat Princeton 6 goals to 4 back then.
I am going to point people to a lengthy blog posting of mine I have titled Believe. The first part is about the cultural shifts at Rutgers since I was a young man. Today’s Rutgers is not like the school I attended. It is far more different than the school my father and grandfather attended. In some ways I have become an advocate for the reform of Rutgers and education in ways that challenge the current status quo. The latter part of my essay goes into beliefs about space development. Yes, I think that field needs deep, fundamental reforms as well.
Enough for now.