Liberal Debate: Shut Up!
E.L. Doctorow, a celebrated writer partisan hack I’d never heard of before today and hope never to hear of again, was nearly booed offstage (hat tip: Drudge) at Hofstra University for delivering a commencement speech that consisted of little more than an anti-Bush tirade. At one point, the booing got so loud that that Doctorow was unable to continue. University President Stuart Rabinowitz took the stage, and addressed the students and parents saying:
On behalf of the university I would like to apologize for Mr. Doctorow’s speech. While we recognize Mr. Doctorow has the same First Amendment rights as anyone else, we also recognize that there is a time and place for everything, and the graduation exercises were neither. Mr. Doctorow, you hvae violated our trust and abused the platform. Please leave immediately, as you are no longer welcome here. To everyone else, please know that in future years, steps will be taken to assure that this does not happen again. For now, try to ignore this last harangue and enjoy the remainder of the ceremony.
Or maybe not. What Rabinowitz actually said was this:
We value open discussion and debate. For the sake of your graduates, please let him finish.
To further demonstrate his commitment to open discussion and debate, Mr. Rabinowitz did not allow anyone else to take the mic in order to rebut any of Doctorow’s remarks.
May 23rd, 2004 at 9:25 pm
He reminds me of the clown who spoke at my college graduation in 1993. He gave a sixty minute tirade about how the Japanese and European economic models were vastly superior to our own and that our job market sucked and would continue to suck until we adopted it. Aside from the fact his speech was less accurate than a broken clock, his tirade was the last thing we wanted to hear on our graduation.
One difference, though — at first, we actually applauded him, and resorted to boos only after he refused to take the hint.
May 24th, 2004 at 1:59 pm
Hmmm…
I wonder how tolerant the University would have been if Doctorow had been using the podium to, say, castigate ethnic minorites. My betting is that the University President knew damn well what Doctorow was going to say, and thought the views needed to be placed before the graduates. Graduates who should have walked out. I imagine some did.
May 25th, 2004 at 11:18 am
I was telling my wife that grads should always be issued kazoos as they enter the commencement venue. That way if the commencement speaker is offensive, the grads can march out playing “Land of Hope and Glory” on their kazoos.
And maybe some people without clues would suddenly get one.
May 25th, 2004 at 8:27 pm
I’m not terribly surprised that Xrlq has not heard of E.L. Doctorow. The fault, however, does not lie with Doctorow.
The tenor of Xrlq’s opening statement suggests that he judges works of literature by whether or not their authors match his standards for political correctness. I suspect that literature is not really all that important to Xrlq.
In which case, his pompous declaration of Doctorow (”[I] hope never to hear of [him] again” is merely the preening of a Philistine.
The rest of Xrlq’s post is similarly infantile. We all have to sit through speeches we regard as idiotic, at graduations and elsewhere. Xrlq is free to trumpet his disagreement with Doctorow’s speech all over the net. Doctorow, of course, was correctly left free to say his piece.
May 25th, 2004 at 8:50 pm
I’m not terribly surprised that M. Croche has not heard of Xrlq. The fault, however, does not lie with Xrlq.
The tenor of m.croche’s opening statement suggests that he judges works of political commentary by whether or not their authors match his standards for political correctness. I suspect that commentary is not really all that important to m.croche.
In which case, his pompous declaration of Xrlq as “merely the preening of a Philistine” is that of a pompous poseur.
The rest of m.croche’s post is similarly infantile. We all listen to commentators we regard as idiotic, on the internet and elsewhere. m.croche is free to trumpet his disagreement with Xrlq’s post all over the net. Xrlq, of course, was correctly left free to say his piece.
ps: If you can explain why my commentary differs from yours in any substantial way, I’ll give you bonus poseur points.
May 25th, 2004 at 11:17 pm
DMOE: Thanks for the reminder.
May 26th, 2004 at 7:06 am
How can one find differences in substance when Sean’s post is so obviously lacking in the stuff?