This Is A Must Listen!!

[jku]

http://www.rrstar.com/localnews/your_community/rockford/20030520-4814.shtml

I found this Graduation speech fascinating. The speaker is so TRUTHFUL, knowledgable and talking from his heart. Yet the audience sound awful.

The people in the audience are interesting to me, as I live in such open minded world. If someone at my graduation spoke on something I didn't agree with, I would at least give proper respect and listen to what he/see had to say.

[coll214]

I can't believe that a group of supposedly intelligent adults cannot calmly sit and at least hear the speaker out. Regardless of how the audience feels on his views, he has a right to express them; isn't that the beauty of free speech? Apparently none of them ever heard that a person has a right to their own opinion.. Granted, a graduation may not be the best forum to express them...

[tipsy88]

yet again strikes the double edge blade of free speech vs. good taste.

[jku]

If anyone paid attention to the substance of the speech, it was excellent. The speaker stated that he is fluent in Arabic and lived in Iraq for 7 years.

I agree with W-brake that it definitely was not the same droll grad speech we heard in junior high, and high school (Bill Cosby spoke at my college graduation - he was funny; "...stop trying to change the world people - and CHANGE YOURSELF!)

I heard one guy in audience say: "This is a liberal arts college, but do we gotta listen to a liberal!?" What did you expect your kid to learn when you sent them to ART-HAG STATE? The pros/cons of Keynesian economics?

Maybe people agreed with his message, but didn't think it was the right place to deliver it?
I don't know - but we ALL must realize that freedom of speech is a 2 way street.

I have to permit the presence of morons like Sean Hannity on my "publically-owned" radio and TV airwaves, just as much the other side has to bear Michael Moore's courageous statements.

[dakotagopher]

Freedom of speech IS a two-way street: the members of the crowd had the freedom to say/do whatever they wanted in protest of what they felt was unfair & inaccurate bilge being spewed by an extremist. Rude of them to do so, I agree, but their right.

That being said, I agree that what the speaker was saying, at the heart of his speech, is accurate: War is terrible, with often unseen and unpredictable consequences, and we need to be careful not to get caught up in it.

BUT, the speaker could have conveyed this in a more moderate way, and people would have taken him more seriously, i suspect. Most of his speech was doomsday speculation - sure, bad things may happen as a result of the war; good things may happen as well. Time will tell.

What is interesting to me, is that the fringe-liberal spin/speculation like this has been spewed by commencement speakers for years and years (while several speakers espousing extreme Right Wing spin/speculation have been booed off the stage over the past decade), and this is the first I've heard of those in the crowd that disagreed having the nerve to say "No, I don't need to hear any more of this." Used to be the conservative members of the crowd would sit there and meekly take it in, being too afraid to speak out.

Maybe it was the timing of his particular message; again, had he not included the fringe speculation I doubt anybody would have had a real problem with what he said, because all sane people agree that the heart of his message is accurate.

[jku]

Happy birthday to Dakota Gopher as well ---

In regards to the speech, I can agree with DG's statement that the speech was "doomsday speculation - sure, bad things may happen as a result of the war; good things may happen as well. Time will tell."

But what I am sensing from all the feeds we're getting in at work of people on the streets in Baghdad and the Middle East as a whole - is the rumblings of something much bigger than we're prepared to handle. There are BILLIONS of muslims who are more sympathetic with the fringe elements of their religion NOW more than ever before.

Cognizant of that, as well as the thus far bumbling of our Adminstration on almosy every aspect of the post-war period, this speech may be seen in the long run to be very prescient. I liken it to some of the speeches given in the mid 60s prior to escalation of the conflict in Vietnam. The reaction of the public was eerily similar. Instead of calling someone with a dissenting opinion a 'terrorist,' they were labled 'communist.' People reacted passionately then too - who wants to admit to themselves that the President and country they love so much has been devious? Like a battered wife, we keep telling ourselves after each blow to our collective guts that "it'll be okay, just give it time."

What do we know now? That the dissidents in the 60s were right.
The war in Vietnam was wrong. The Gulf of Tonkin was a manufactured incident. Many brave, patriotic, innocent men and women were senselessly slaughtered for years and the American public watched the body bags pile high week after week until 1975!

Right now, we young people have a choice on which side of history to stand. If history is any guide, in time, the voice of dissent will be proven to be the voice of reason.