Posted on 05/25/2004 3:06:09 AM PDT by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
Did you hear about the college commencement speaker who was almost booed off the stage Sunday because his commencement address was an anti-Bush rant? The speaker was E.L. Doctorow. The college, God bless it forever, was Hofstra University on New York's Long Island.
Newsday reported that Mr. Doctorow--or, as Newsday put it in the first paragraph, "E.L. Doctorow, one of the most celebrated writers in America"--gave a 20-minute address "lambasting President George W. Bush and effectively calling him a liar." It didn't go over too well. Mr. Doctorow announced to the crowd that he himself is a storyteller. But the president too, he said in a flight of dazzling cleverness, is a storyteller. The president's stories are not so good thought "because they are not true."
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
It's all right, Peggy. We already knew. :)
Wow, she's hopping mad and has really outdone herself. Great work, Peggy! Get mad more often! :)
Great column. So who the heck at Hofstra actually invited this guy?
I can't think of two more telling examples of the division in our country. Doctorow is stuck in the 60's- Peggy grew up.
One would think that the conservative alumni will pass when the hat is passed their way. On the other hand, perhaps the liberal alum would be more motivated to ante up. It would be interesting to hear if Hostra suffered or benefited because of Docktorow.
It would be nice to hear that the student body, their families (the one's paying the bills) and alumni demanded the resignation of those responsible. There is freedom of speech, but not freedom from the consequences of that speech.
Kudos to Peggy, and most of all, kudos to the students of Hofstra.
The real irony was how he decided to talk about hubris (which he was king enough to define for those of us who didn't know it related to arrogance) and how the American government, specifically the current administration, was full of it. I couldn't help myself - after the ceremony, I sidled up beside him as he talked to a colleague and loudly declaimed the hubris of a speaker who decided to wing an address instead of taking the time to properly prepare for it. I was talking to my daughter and explained to her that some folks had no common sense or courtesy. I told her, that heaven forbid she become a Democrat, but if she did, she should always give herself and others the respect of making good arguments. Otherwise she would be rightfully thought a twit.
The guy's conversation had turned into an embarrassed silence, which I took as a complement, so I smiled at the guy and left that little area.
BUMP!
Fast Eddy Doctorow told a story at the commencement all right, and it is a story about the boorishness of the aging liberal. An old '60s radical who feels he is entitled to impose his views on this audience on this day because he's so gifted, so smart, so insightful, so very above the normal rules, agreements and traditions. And for this he will get to call himself besieged and heroic--a hero about whom stories are told!--when in fact all he did was guarantee positive personal press in the elite media, at the cost of the long suffering patience of normal people who wanted to move the tassel and throw the hat in the air.
I am a conservative. I have spoken at three college commencements. Each time I spoke I talked about the students, and the life ahead of them, and the nature of their achievement. I spoke to them about them. I didn't tell them Jimmy Carter is a retard or Bill Clinton is a pig. It would have been wrong to do that. It would have been boorish. It would have deserved boos.
Another out of the ball park hit for Peggy. This is one dynamite piece, don't fail to follow the link and read the entire piece.
Fast Eddy Doctorow told a story at the commencement all right, and it is a story about the boorishness of the aging liberal. An old '60s radical who feels he is entitled to impose his views on this audience on this day because he's so gifted, so smart, so insightful, so very above the normal rules, agreements and traditions. And for this he will get to call himself besieged and heroic--a hero about whom stories are told!--when in fact all he did was guarantee positive personal press in the elite media, at the cost of the long suffering patience of normal people who wanted to move the tassel and throw the hat in the air.
Good essay. Bumpomai.
This says it all.
Yeah, I like the angry Peggy.
BUMP!!!
The Bush-haters have to drag a derogatory comment about Bush into virtually every situation . . . they are truly obsessed. Here in Seattle, liberals have to tack an anti-Bush comment onto everything they say: "I went to the store today, to try to put some life into Bush's economy." Or, "Tha Mariners are performing as badly as Bush." Or, "I'm afraid to order salmon anymore, because of what Bush has done to the environment." Or, "We'd have more money for our schools, if Bush weren't using it all to blow up babies in Iraq." I get sick of it.
People there actually say things like that??
I teach a class (dance) and I can count like clockwork the 'Bush-bashing' newbies who go off in the middle of class for no reason. There is an assumption made that if you are 'creative' or artistic, you must be liberal.
Not.
The arrogance makes me gag.
So it is fun to see them stand there with their mouths hanging open at this old lady in a hip scarf as they discover she is a rabid conservative. And I am not afraid to ask them "just how did you get to class, on a donkey? So shut up about this 'war for oil' BS!"
It is a fine balance, but I manage to shut them up and still get them to be regular, paying students.
he he he
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