Betsy Newmark has written an excellent column on commencement speeches. Please read it all. Here is an excerpt.
New School President Bob Kerrey recently praised a group of student protesters, comparing them to the students in Tiananmen Square. Was he referring to the Belarussian students who risked police beatings and frostbite to protest a corrupt election? Or the Iranians who risked arrest and torture to protest the rule of the mullahs?No. He was proud of his own students, who had heckled Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., as he delivered their commencement address. In Kerrey's mind, heckling McCain in a college surrounded by professors and students who agree with you is comparable to facing a tank or torture. Though admitting that he and McCain felt insulted by the students' disrespect, he went on to praise the students for the self-restraint they showed in not shutting down the entire ceremony.
Clearly, it doesn't take much to earn respect these days. But these students can congratulate themselves on "speaking truth to power." The rest of us can wonder why it is suddenly noble to reject even listening to someone with whom you disagree and why a university president -- and former United States senator -- would encourage them in their self-important rudeness.
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Comments (5)
Rudeness and deranged logic... (Below threshold)1. Posted by moseby | June 1, 2006 9:20 AM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Rudeness and deranged logic exhibited at the New School for Socialist Research? Didn't see that one coming.
1. Posted by moseby | June 1, 2006 9:20 AM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on June 1, 2006 09:20
2. Posted by MikeSC | June 1, 2006 11:02 AM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Nothing reeks of PURE courage quite like being a rude little twerp in front of people who you know, for a fact, support what you're doing. Where's the courage in being rude?
Funny, you don't see lefties get the same treatment, and God knows they warrant it.
-=Mike
2. Posted by MikeSC | June 1, 2006 11:02 AM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on June 1, 2006 11:02
3. Posted by Tim McNabb | June 1, 2006 11:03 AM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
The only way the Left can cling to power is to abandon reason, encourage the abandonment of reason, and appeal to those bereft of reason.
3. Posted by Tim McNabb | June 1, 2006 11:03 AM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on June 1, 2006 11:03
4. Posted by Dumb Mc Nabb | June 1, 2006 12:11 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
You mean the power the left has in the house, senate, WH and supreme court?
4. Posted by Dumb Mc Nabb | June 1, 2006 12:11 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on June 1, 2006 12:11
5. Posted by Sheik Yur Bouty | June 1, 2006 12:38 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Dumb Mc Nabb,
Thanks for proving Tim's point!
-syb
5. Posted by Sheik Yur Bouty | June 1, 2006 12:38 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on June 1, 2006 12:38