Um… they’ve listened to him, that’s why they left.
Graduation ceremonies are meant for the graduates. Some find meaning in listening to a speaker, others find meaning in walking out. There is room for both.
If you show up and make a political speech, don’t be surprised when you receive a political response.
So the school is to blame? Doesn’t the school invite the speaker? Then boycott the school. Burn your diploma if it came from that school for the school must represent his views as well or they wouldn’t let him speak.
Hundreds, and I mean HUNDREDS, of pages of fake documents made by The Onion.
I wouldn’t be surprised if his actual handlers pick up the Onion’s Presidential Briefing idea.
Or they could just walk out. Which is what they did.
Walking out of a speech in protest: also free speech.
Snowflakes… :)
Walking out is a perfectly acceptable form of protest. It’s mildly disruptive but that is ok.
Especially compared to most what happens on most college campuses these days.
Fortunately, the graduates reasoned better than you did. The speaker is the one who is most responsible for the speech. So if you want to protest, it is most logical to direct the protest at the speaker.
Maybe Mike Pence could learn to hold less abhorrent views if he were kidnapped and taken to an abusive reeducation camp and subjected to weeks of physical and mental torture.
Yea, the school had no idea his views would be problematical.
They might have guessed. Regardless, the speaker is the one who is most responsible for the speech.
Does that apply to DeVos being asked to speak at Bethune-Cookman?
Yes, students at Bethune-Cookman should primarily direct their protest at DeVos. And I’m pretty sure they did.
So why do you suppose these places of higher edumacation force these evil speakers upon their graduates. is it all about learning how to protest or are they trying to convert them?
Okay, so I am being facetious, but the school that invites Hitler to speak must bear some responsibility for bringing Hitler in to speak in the first place.
I think it’s a symptom of our super-polarized political situation today. Schools have traditionally tried to get famous people to speak at commencements, and it used to be that even if you didn’t agree with what they had to say, you’d still be impressed that your school managed such a good “get”.
Look back to, say, 1990. If you were an adamant foe of Bush I and your school managed to score James Baker as the speaker at your graduation, chances are you’d actually be impressed that such an important man was going to be there. You might wish that it was someone else, but you probably wouldn’t protest.
Not so today. I’m hard-pressed to think of a single national political person who wouldn’t generate some degree of protest from one or both sides at a graduation.
The DeVos pick was just crazy. I can understand the VP. Sure, you might hate the guy’s politics, but he’s the VP. I’d probably just sit there and silently grumble. But DeVos? She literally stands for everything the opposite of HBCU and public schools. Fuck her and fuck the idiot administration that invited her to speak at Bethune-Cookman.
LOL, I can verify. James Baker actually was the commencement speaker at my school in 1991, and I was impressed even though I didn’t like him.