|
SirTripAlot
Semper Fidelis
Registered: 01/11/05
Posts: 7,633
Loc: Harmless (Mostly)
Last seen: 1 day, 14 hours
|
Is this acceptable behavior?
#5651655 - 05/19/06 09:46 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
|
|
Is this closed minded or acceptable protest?
May 19, 2006
McCain Gets Cantankerous Reception at Commencement
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW YORK (AP) -- Senator John McCain of Arizona received a cantankerous reception during his appearance at the New School commencement Friday, where dozens of faculty members and students turned their backs and raised signs in protest and a distinguished student speaker pointedly mocked him as he sat silently nearby.
The historically liberal university has been roiled in controversy in recent weeks over the selection of McCain, a conservative Republican and likely 2008 presidential candidate, to deliver the commencement address.
Some 1,200 students and faculty signed petitions asking the university president, former Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey, to rescind the invitation. Petitioners said McCain's support for the Iraq war and opposition to gay rights and legal abortion do not keep with the prevailing views on campus.
Kerrey, a Democrat who served in the Senate with McCain and, like McCain, is a decorated Vietnam War veteran, addressed the controversy almost immediately after the 2,700 graduates and thousands of other parents and friends filed into Madison Square Garden for the ceremony.
"Sen. McCain, you have much to teach us," Kerrey said to a smattering of boos and hisses. He urged students to exercise the open-mindedness he said was at the heart of the university's progressive history.
But Kerrey's remarks were immediately overshadowed by those of Jean Sara Rohe, one of two distinguished seniors invited by the university's deans to address the graduates.
Beginning by singing a wistful folk tune calling for world peace, Rohe announced she had thrown out her prepared remarks to address the McCain controversy directly.
"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."
Indeed, it was McCain's decision to address Liberty that set off the protests at the New School during the past several weeks.
Known for his maverick streak, McCain as a 2000 presidential candidate famously called Falwell one of the "agents of intolerance" hurting the Republican party. But recently, as McCain has begun laying the groundwork for another White House bid, he has sought to shore up his conservative credentials.
McCain later thanked Rohe for her "Cliff's notes" version of his speech, and then, as expected, delivered remarks that were nearly identical to his earlier appearances.
He reaffirmed his support for the Iraq war but urged debate and dissent. And he repeated the theme of youthful self-assuredness mocked just moments before by Rohe.
"When I was a young man, I was quite infatuated with self-expression, and rightly so because, if memory conveniently serves, I was so much more eloquent, well-informed and wiser than anyone else I knew," McCain said. He added that he would have been right at home in the opinionated world of blogs.
As he spoke, several dozen students and faculty turned their backs to him and lifted signs saying "Our commencement is not your platform."
A few students yelled catcalls at McCain, saying things like "full of it," and "We're graduating, not voting."
Kerrey later retook the stage to praise McCain and Rohe's speeches as "two acts of bravery," while suggesting the hecklers weren't nearly as courageous as those who took the stage.
"Will you stand and say what you believe when you know that heckling and loudness and boos will arise?" Kerrey asked.
-------------------- “I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”
|
Redstorm
Prince of Bugs
Registered: 10/08/02
Posts: 44,175
Last seen: 5 months, 8 days
|
Re: Is this acceptable behavior? [Re: SirTripAlot]
#5651830 - 05/19/06 11:10 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
|
|
I don't see why they can't do that. It's their party and they'll cry if they want to.
|
Konnrade
↑↑↓↓<--><-->BA
Registered: 09/13/05
Posts: 13,833
Loc: LA Suburbs
Last seen: 10 months, 23 days
|
Re: Is this acceptable behavior? [Re: SirTripAlot]
#5651916 - 05/19/06 11:40 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
|
|
Sounds like they're being pouty brats to me. They must think that manners only apply to people who agree with everything you beleive
-------------------- I find your lack of faith disturbing
|
The_Red_Crayon
Exposer of Truth
Registered: 08/13/03
Posts: 13,673
Loc: Smokey Mtns. TN
Last seen: 6 years, 10 months
|
Re: Is this acceptable behavior? [Re: SirTripAlot]
#5651967 - 05/20/06 12:02 AM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
|
|
since when did McCain officially support Iraq. These people are ludicrous.
|
SirTripAlot
Semper Fidelis
Registered: 01/11/05
Posts: 7,633
Loc: Harmless (Mostly)
Last seen: 1 day, 14 hours
|
|
In my estimation, isn't graduation, a celebration or at least a formal ceremony?
If they wanted to get pissed off, get pissed at the gentleman who booked McCain.........seems like they ruined there own ceremony...............
-------------------- “I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”
|
OJK
Stranger
Registered: 06/08/03
Posts: 10,629
|
Re: Is this acceptable behavior? [Re: SirTripAlot]
#5652767 - 05/20/06 09:51 AM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
|
|
Seems perfectly acceptable to me.
|
Redstorm
Prince of Bugs
Registered: 10/08/02
Posts: 44,175
Last seen: 5 months, 8 days
|
|
I would expect the same reception is someone like John Kerry spoke at a predominately conservative graduation ceremony. These are college kids; they have no tact (regardless of political affiliation).
|
wilshire
free radical
Registered: 05/11/05
Posts: 2,421
Loc: SE PA
Last seen: 14 years, 2 months
|
Re: Is this acceptable behavior? [Re: SirTripAlot]
#5653317 - 05/20/06 01:14 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
|
|
Petitioners said McCain's support for the Iraq war and opposition to gay rights and legal abortion do not keep with the prevailing views on campus.
|
Konnrade
↑↑↓↓<--><-->BA
Registered: 09/13/05
Posts: 13,833
Loc: LA Suburbs
Last seen: 10 months, 23 days
|
Re: Is this acceptable behavior? [Re: wilshire]
#5653989 - 05/20/06 05:27 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
|
|
"You're not like us! We hate you!"
And then things go downhill as their behavior devolves to that of apes...
Too many people use politics as an excuse to act like total assholes.
-------------------- I find your lack of faith disturbing
|
EquilibriuM
dream stalker
Registered: 07/17/05
Posts: 2,323
Last seen: 16 years, 9 months
|
Re: Is this acceptable behavior? [Re: SirTripAlot]
#5654045 - 05/20/06 05:52 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
|
|
Bunch of tools in a tool shed
-------------------- HELP!!!!!!!!!
|
|