Playwright Tony Kushner's Commencement Speech

[workinggirl]

Here's playwright Tony Kushner, delivering this year's commencement speech at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y (I am not kidding, this is what he said; hard to believe, though).:

Having some answer to the WHY ME question, having done the work to change the way you inflect that question from the adenoidal to the introspective, is useful as you try to answer the other question, WHAT AM I DOING HERE, a question which vast forces of reaction, otherwise known as the devil, the Republican Party, the petrochemical industry, Dick and Lynn [sic] Cheney, call them what you will, vast and nearly-ineluctably persuasive and pervasive forces of reaction will seek to answer for you: you are here to consume and to surrender. . . .

That's what happens when you despair, you open the door to evil, and evil is always happy to enter, sit down, abolish the Clean Air Act and the Kyoto accords and refuse to participate in the World Court or the ban on landmines, evil is happy refusing funds to American clinics overseas that counsel abortion and evil is happy drilling for oil in Alaska, evil is happy pinching pennies while 40 million people worldwide suffer and perish from AIDS; and evil will sit there, carefully chewing pretzels and fondly flipping through the scrapbook reminiscing about the 131 people he executed when he was governor, while his wife reads Dostoevsky in the corner, evil has a brother in Florida and a whole bunch of relatives, evil settles in and it's the devil of a time getting him to vacate.

[madprof98]

. . .evil is happy refusing funds to American clinics overseas that counsel abortion . . .

Uh, no, that would be "good."

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

I'm starting to think it's time to carpet-bomb the colleges of America - the true axis of evil...

[Clemenza]

Ah, poor Tony. He's just bitter because since Angels in America all of his plays have flopped. Mr. Kushner is the Gay brother that Michael Moore should have had.

[marktwain]

It is clear that Kushner is evil. He has a right to say what he says, but I doubt that he would support our right to contend that he is the true evil.

[anniegetyourgun]

He should leave the country and never return.

[ao98]

Here's a link to the full speech. Warning. There is a picture of this gay freak.

[d-back]

Vassar, long the most notable of the Ivy League's Seven Sisters, is a hotbed of left wing, politically-correct thought. President Frances Fergusson--a Ford Foundation flunkie--is the high priestess of PC at Vassar. No surprise that Tony Kushner chose Vassar's commencement for his recent outburst.

In a show of the usual left wing "tolerance" for speech, Vassar students once protested William Buckley's planned appearance so vehemently that he did not appear on campus.

Can anyone add to the list of other Vassar outrages?

[Paul Atreides]

It's interested as to why a university would want to hear the world view of someone who makes a living writing about imaginary characters and plots.

[Paul Atreides]

Yep, he has whiner written all over him.

[justshutupandtakeit]

Kushner ? Isn't he dead yet?

[Tony in Hawaii]

It's disgraceful the way the mentally ill the this country are coddled and indulged and even celebrated. This guy needs help, not an audience.

[dighton]

If this self-absorbed buffoon didn't exist, someone would have to make him up.

[Mr. Jeeves]

So much shallowness, masquerading as depth...

[driftless]

Yes but unfortunately I 'll bet that he got a huge round of applause from a rapt audience. Nuts like Kushner could not deliver their hysterical tantrums unless there were people, probably most of his Vassar audience, who thought he had something deep to say. I'm not as much upset about Kushner as I am about the fact the his audience most likely agrees with his drivel and will be occupying positions of influence in American culture and business. But given that, Kushner should see a good shrink.

[Orual]

If this self-absorbed buffoon didn't exist, someone would have to make him up.

The self-madeup (let's hope he self-absorbs) buffoon is a pitiful excuse for something. I just can't think of what it is. Anyone?