The Difference Between Self-Expression And Incivility
By Pejman Yousefzadeh Posted in Culture — Comments (17) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Lord knows, I have my problems with John McCain. I can't believe that he does not make at least some cynical use of his status as a "maverick." His campaign finance reform suggestions are an affront to free speech. Sometimes, he just seems to enjoy being cantankerous for kicks.
But John McCain is someone who endured horrible conditions in order to uphold the honor of the United States as a POW and at bottom, he is a genuine patriot. With all of his faults--and again, I do not discount those faults--we as a nation would be poorer if he and others like him were absent from public life.
That is why this is, in the end, an affront:
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."
It is, of course, very nice and charming to have such certain opinions. It is thoroughly devoid of charm to tell someone that you have nothing to learn from them merely because that someone may hold different opinions from you. And yes, the students are young. They are naïve. Neither McCain nor I nor anyone of sound mind will tell these students that they are "too young and naïve" to hold opinions, but these students should be told and hopefully will be told that however old they are, they might take to heart the inescapable fact that they have much yet to learn from others--especially people like McCain who have packed the equivalent of the lifetimes of several people into one life.
Oh, and if you wish to show yourself as a mature soul, best to avoid the following:
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."
And that, of course, is telling. The mature, the serious-minded, the genuinely eloquent soul who understands the gravity attendant to affairs of statecraft does not content himself/herself with juvenile acts of supposedly brave resistance. He/she votes. He/she canvasses. He/she gets down into the nitty gritty of policy, of voter turnout, of placing yard signs, of mapping out precinct walks. He she is happily busy and engaged with all of the little things that are necessary in order for this our democratic republic to survive and flourish.
He/she is not one of these graduates of the New School who is merely content to raise a sign, shout childish slogans in the air. This does not constitute advancing the cause and interests of a great and good democratic republic. This is dilettantism in extremis. And as much as I may disagree with many aspects of John McCain's political record, he does more in an afternoon for the interests of this great and good democratic republic than many--if not all--of these students will ever do in their lives.
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The Difference Between Self-Expression And Incivility 17 Comments (0 topical, 17 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
tell the sky not to be up and dirt not to be dirty.
These kinds of childish, symbol-over-substance, dissent-is-patriotic sort of displays are who they are. So brave, so noble, because when your goal is pure, your actions are made pure by it, as well.
"Ignorance is the greatest form of patriotism."
Hey, if John Kerry can make up Thomas Jefferson quotes, I am certainly entitled to make up William Jefferson quotes.
It was "Graft in the public service is the greatest form of patriotism" ...
I'm surprised, and dismayed, that a fellow as intelligent and knowledgeable as you would even bother to comment on this. It's as if you expected something better from the educational system, despite several decades of evidence to the contrary.
"One thousand in the Caymans beats ninety in your icebox."
"Those that would not give a little legislative lubricant in order to secure their infernal influence deserve neither.
McCain got the usual ill-mannered dressing down from snarky Young Democrats. Things could have been worse. Had it been a funeral for a prominent Democratic politician, it would have been so bad that McCain would have felt like he was back in solitary confinement back in the Hilton. Activist liberal Democrats are like that; they treat everyone who is not one of Them like feces, deserving of contempt and slight regard.
Then they trot out Al Franken to tell everybody that you didn't see the funeral you thought you really saw, and that you should trust him, and not your lyin' eyes.
Anyway, Condi gets the Self-Righteously Smug treatment from more Young Democrats at Boston College on Monday. It should be really entertaining to watch the Warrior Princess lay down the smack. The MSM will be out in force, which means so will Code Pink, the Chomskyites, and other assorted brownshirts.
Too bad it's the springtime. Condi should wear the boots.
each of the seven languages she's fluent in...or is it nine? Rub it in their elitist faces!
with Conservatives, instead of thanking the student who mocked his forthcoming speech as she introduced him by saying that she had presented the "Cliff Notes" version of his speech, he should have said, "Thank you for this warm welcome. As a matter of fact I haven't felt this welcome since the government of North Vietnam put me up in the Presidential Suite at the Hilton in Hanoi."
Even my heart would have melted on that one.
quoth he:
- I know not what military vehicle others may take, but as for me, give me a helicopter or give me a troop transport!
- I regret that I have but one life sentence to serve for my country.
- I have a dream, today ... that someday a man will be judged not by the color of his skin, but by the content of his freezer.
- Why can't we all just go along and get along?
In looking for others, I stumbled on these. They are chilling, and not funny at all:
- "Our strategy is to destroy the enemy from within, to conquer him through himself."
- "Demoralize the enemy from within by surprise, terror, sabotage, assassination. This is the war of the future."
The last two are both from Adolf Hitler.
"He urged students to exercise the open-mindedness he said was at the heart of the university's progressive history."
Heh. Open-minded progressives. Heh. Right up there with "unbiased opinion", "airline food" and "funky white guy" as my all-time favorite oxymorons.
he'd joke about that.
But if he did say that, and they booed instead of laughed, THEN they have no souls.
the other half is that the souls of McCain's captors reside in those young bodies...
You are right that conservatives typically do not make boisturous displays. It is one of our more admirable qualities, namely that aside from the odd letter-writing campaign our noisiest protest is on the first Tuesday in November. I would be chagrined were we ever to degenerate to the level of petty disruption.
This bit from the end of the CNN article:
McCain, who was both cheered and booed at the end of his remarks, did not address the hecklers, but Kerrey did."You heard and saw two acts of bravery," the former senator said after the speeches of McCain and Rohe. "There will come a time when you will have to answer the question -- will you stand -- not heckling from an audience where no bravery is required -- but will you stand and say what you believe when you know that heckling and laughter and boos will arise?"
Although I'm not a big fan of McCain, the rudeness always on display at affairs like this sickens me.
I think it's telling that it never seems to happen that conservatives shout down or attempt to intimidate liberal speakers. Perhaps it's time that conservatives learn to break the rules, too. I don't like that approach, but it would make it clear to and in the MSM that we really do exist, and that we care about OUR beliefs as much as the libs do.