So I just finished up my third year at college and today I went to the commencement ceremony to see some friends graduate (and to see a president). The streets were crawling with families; parents, grandparents, children, etc. Upon nearing the stadium, though, crowds were met with a few 'pro-lifers' holding up massive blown up images of bloody, cut-up fetuses. Yes, it's freedom of speech and yes, I think these people were completely within their rights to do what they did. However, I think it was all in horribly poor taste. These people are barraging families - again, including many little children - with gore-filled images on a day when they're simply trying to come together and celebrate the graduation of their loved ones. I'm against the Iraq War, but you'll never catch me at a commencement ceremony holding up signs of dismembered Iraqi children just to further my political agenda. Just very poor taste in general. That's all I've got to say...
I guarantee those same people are against pot-day protests and things of the like, because "people shouldn't be putting that shit in front of families and children who don't want to see it."
That's the problem with free speech: even the crazies (not referring to any group/individual specifically) are allowed to exercise it.
Yeah, I have to work today, but I live a block from the stadium and had to deal with the crowds. I think if Obama is gonna use a 45 min commencement speech as an opportunity to bash on anyone who believes in smaller, minimal, or even no government eek, then it's just as appropriate to have pro-lifers protesting. He could have talked about school, education, graduation, job placement, etc. instead of making it political. From what I hear so far, people weren't much impressed.
If people don't like seeing pictures of the babies killed by abortion, then we as a nation should stop killing babies via abortion. Imagine... a world where we didn't kill babies... just because they were inconvenient.
It's pretty gross how much he exploited the opportunity: That would really suck if I had to hear some paranoid liberal douche talk about FOX news at my commencement. And then he goes on to talk repeatedly about "our democracy": After fawning over "our democracy" he then tries to deny being an authoritarian... The US government, authoritarian ?!?!!? Your school invited Barack Obama to speak so they could obviously care less about your commencement ceremony. It was a mutually beneficial publicity stunt.
I mean, I have to assume you weren't on the Michigan campus around election day; the vast majority of campus was electrified over the guy; the central campus was flooded with celebrating supporters the night he was elected. My point being, the student body was just very much interested in having him come to speak, representing a population segment that got him into office. I dunno, it all seemed appropriate to me. -------------- As far as the speech goes, there wasn't really much political bandwagon talk going on; at the very least, that certainly wasn't the focus of the speech. Rather, the theme of the address was about dialogue, respectful dialogue between people of opposing views. He urged people to get out of their comfort zone, expressing the dangers present - regardless of which side of the political spectrum people fall on - of insulating oneself from oppositional views. He emphasized the danger of labeling others, for example writing Tea Partiers off as 'right-wing nuts' or anti-war people as 'bleeding-heart liberals'. It was astutely noted that the danger of this is not bruised egos or hurt feelings but rather political stagnancy; no progress in any direction is going to be made with that kind of approach to politics - an approach all too common on these very message boards. Can you not agree with the above sentiments? To sum up, if you believe Obama's policies are authoritarian, alright. When people come to that conclusion through their own thinking - as opposed to an opinion ripped from the mouth of talking-heads - that's totally valid. But what is accomplished by saying Obama ranks with Hitler or Stalin? Nothing except the alienation of the people who you're trying to enlighten: the same thing goes for when Bush was in office; saying something like 'Bush's presidential policies are eroding important civil liberties that we should not part with so lightly, even in the face of terrorism' is going to garner a lot more constructive dialogue than 'Bush is a Nazi'. Even if one believes that calling Obama fascist or socialist is not hyperbolic, one needs to consider the effects of using language like that; constructive dialogue is certainly not one of them.
Shocking, a bunch of liberal profs managed to indoctrinate a bunch of ignorant college students into being ignorant and going crazy over a socialist candidate with no experience in 2008, and then invite him to give the commencement address and presumably award him an honorary degree for his long list of precisely -0- accomplishment thusfar. And to think, for the low low price of free you could have remained just as ignorant as you will be after 4 years of college education. People used to go to college to learn, among other things, critical thinking skills. Now it seems they go to make sure their critical thinking ability is as disengaged as possible without surgical alteration to the brain itself. The great irony of liberalism in Michigan is that there is no state in the union that greater highlights the absolute, complete, total, and utter failure of liberalism than Michigan. Detroit is the pinnicle, the zenith, the summit, of liberalism and its complete and utter failure. Once the most thriving state in the union has been reduced to rubble. In ancient Rome when governors were as incompetent as Gramholm there were sent into a lifetime of exile in the far reaches of the farthest shores of the black sea, a fate considered significnatly worse than death.
What's to respond to? That Obama is a poor rhetorician that tries to portray himself as part of a reasonable middle and everyone who disagrees with him as an extremist that needs to "tone down the rhetoric" etc? It's the same speech he ahs been giving for 3 years every time someone has criticized him, but the media can't be bothered to point out that he is the extremist that incites problems. Obama is a liar. His idea of "progress" and "compromise" is "everyone shut up and agree with me." It's right out of Saul Alinsky. When the direction Obama wants to take us is down the road to ruin, no progress is a good thing. When the direction Obama wants to take us is off a cliff, not progressing towards the cliff is a good thing. When you're driving down the wrong road, going in the opposite direction that you need to go, you turn around. You don't slam the gas pedal and criticize the people pointing out that "our destination is the other way."
let me get this straight, you have no problem with political heads speaking on behalf of the whole graduation ceremony, but you have a problem with political protests at the graduation ceremony? sounds Liberal.
Mist, I agree wholeheartedly man. Do they really think they're going to change anyones mind? If so, they'd be EDUCATING people... flashing gory images at them isn't education, it's playing on peoples shock value. There's nothing educational about that, it's fucking manipulation and emotional predation. But we have to take the good with the bad, as you say - it's bad, possibly ghastly, that these people go out and pompously parade their warped views and manipulative half-truths in front of people who don't give a shit and came to see their loved ones/friends graduate. But good can come of this sort of thing, and at the very least the RIGHT to be able to demonstrate and vocalise your cause is absolutely vital to a free society, no matter how some people pervert that right.