Posted on 02/22/2011 2:03:28 PM PST by mainstreetradical.com
Sometimes events that strike close to home are just so odd you have to comment. Today, the University of Arizona announced the opening of the National Institute for Civil Discourse. Based in my hometown of Tucson, the University is reacting to the publicity and media attention that they garnered in the aftermath of the tragic shooting of liberal Representative Gabrielle Giffords. Giffords was shot during a Congress On Your Corner event in Tucson last month. The following debate was a tirade of the mainstream media trying to blame anyone associated with the right for the violence. In reality, the situation turned out to be the result of a very disturbed individual with a mental disorder, with no connection to the right. Why should that stop the University of Arizona from their 15 minutes of fame? Growing up in Tucson, the liberal bastion of Arizona, some curious questions come to my mind. What could the University possibly be thinking will be the outcome, or even the educational extension, from the investment in such a center? The University of Arizona held a memorial shortly after the Giffords shooting; I use the term “memorial” lightly as it was more a political rally. Obama was cheered as he talked about the need for a civil argument in politics. Republican Governor Jan Brewer, a friend of Giffords, was booed as she took the stage. Catcalls and whoops of political approval drained any dignity out of what should have been a remembrance of those who lost their lives and those who were still struggling to find meaning in a meaningless tragedy. Fast forward a month and the University and a community, starved to be recognized as a progressive stalwart in the country, decide to try and capitalize on the negative limelight shed on political discourse by a misguided media. The question that the founding of this new center in Arizona begs is, why? Is civility the new censorship? Knowing some of the community leaders in Tucson and the faculty at the University of Arizona, I believe that this new center will never equate the two terms, but in practice civility will be our new censorship. Maybe the University is lacking in their Department of History or Political Science, but a look at American politics is not, and has never been, a journey down the road of civil discourse. And what might be the finding of such a center, born out of media incompetence and a need for attention? Will the National Center for Civil Discourse truly add to the discourse or will they be just another center at a liberal institution pumping out bad science?
Since the Tucson tragedy the biggest story has been in Wisconsin, where the President has charged the GOP with “assault” on the unions, where we have seen protesters spewing violent rhetoric, where crowds have been assembled in which you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a Hitler sign. The center may start off by pointing some of these incidents out, but I have my doubts; I know the institution and understand the nexus of the decision to start such a group.
...this is like the Nazis opening a tolerance museum.....
Saw this yesterday. I thought the Giffords shooting went down the memory hole, when it became obvious the shooter was a stark raving lunatic...who hated George Bush, and was described as ‘liberal’ by people who knew him.
This new ‘center’ is the moral equivalent of Moochelle’s nutrition campaign.
I thought this was a joke when I clicked on it. Can you say, “Propaganda Ministry,” boys and girls?
Exactly!
One more reason the Alumni Association will get NOTHING from me
In America’s history she never needed this. Bill Clinton and Greta Van Susteren are involved. That’s telling.
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