Speaker of Truth vs Facilitator of Intolerance

I'm just as amused as any good-hearted liberal at the news of John McCain's being booed when he delivered the commencement address at New York's New School. As promised, this was reportedly the same speech he gave at Jerry Falwell's Liberty "University", generally seen as a transparent attempt to pander to extremist religious power — and personally rehabilitate Falwell from McCain's former assessment as "an agent of intolerance", which he objectively is — as McCain contemplates a run for president.

Anyway, I'm not interested in his remarks, and I wouldn't want to give them any space here in my little blog, but I was pretty impressed by the report I read* of a speech that preceded his, given by New School distinguished senior speaker (one of two) Jean Sara Rohe. An excerpt:#

"The senator does not reflect the ideals upon which this university was founded," Rohe proclaimed to loud cheers, with McCain sitting just a few feet away.

She added that she knew what McCain would be saying to the graduates since he had promised to deliver the same speech he gave at Rev. Jerry Falwell's Liberty University last weekend and Columbia University on Tuesday.

"He will tell us we are young and too naive to have valid opinions," Rohe said. "I am young and though I don't possess the wisdom that time affords us, I do know that pre-emptive war is dangerous. And I know that despite all the havoc that my country has wrought overseas in my name, Osama bin Laden still has not been found, nor have those weapons of mass destruction."

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*at: Ari Melber, "New School Rejects New McCain", The Huffington Post, 19 May 2006.

#from Beth Fouhy, "McCain greeted by protests, speeches at university commencement", Newsday, 19 May 2006.

Posted on May 20, 2006 at 16.10 by jns · Permalink
In: All, Splenetics

One Response

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  1. Written by S.W. Anderson
    on Sunday, 21 May 2006 at 02.37
    Permalink

    Also quoted in the cited post:

    "The protests continued right through McCain's speech, according to The Nation's Ari Berman: "What began as mild rumblings of disapproval before McCain's speech soon exploded into boos, catcalls and turned backs.""

    If I'm not mistaken, McCain spoke at the invitation of the New School's graduatng class. Exploding into booing and catcalls is no way to treat a guest. Trying to drown out the speaker was not only extremely rude toward McCain, it was a disservice to students, faculty members and guests who wanted to hear what he had to say.

    I'm big on manners. People who exhibit self-discipline tend to win my respect, even if I disagree with them. Civil discourse requires a measure of maturity, manners and self-discipline. It appears the New School hasn't done much to educate its students about these things, which is a shame.

    This isn't to say the students should've swallowed McCain's speech whole and exploded in wild, if phony, applause. By simply simply refraining from applause, they could've registered their dissent in no uncertain terms. Their judgment would've been inoculated against being written off as the unruly outburst of ill-mannered kids.

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